On 1 June 2016, the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) launched our new campaign, Caring for You, with the aim of improving RCM members' health, safety and wellbeing at work so they are able to provide high-quality maternity care for women and their families.
The birth rate has been rising steadily for years, and added to this maternity units are handling more complex cases. This means that midwives and maternity support workers (MSWs) are working ever harder, and increasingly facing difficult issues. Maternity services in the UK have been running on goodwill for years. The service is reliant on midwives and MSWs working through their breaks and well beyond their hours to provide safe care for women.
Increased pressure and demands have a significant effect on the health, safety and wellbeing of midwives and MSWs. RCM members are reporting that they are feeling stressed, burned out and unable to give high-quality care to women and families. While there is a high level of camaraderie in maternity units, there are also many reports of bullying and undermining behaviours. We believe nobody should be harmed when caring for others.
Supportive and open workplaces benefit both staff and service users. People perform better when they are confident and motivated, and good health, safety and wellbeing underpins this. By positively supporting employees' health, safety and wellbeing, employers can ensure staff perform to the best of their abilities. Research shows that when staff wellbeing is supported, employee involvement increases, motivation and performance levels increase and outcomes for women improve. Investment in staff is an investment in care for women and their families.
We conducted our own research for the campaign to find out about the working experiences of midwives, MSWs and student midwives. This report of our findings (RCM, 2016) makes for troubling reading about the level of burnout and stress; it shows that maternity units are overworked and understaffed, and many midwives and MSWs are feeling under intense pressure to be able to meet the demands of the service. RCM members have never felt so challenged in their ability to provide high-quality care to women and families. There are also worryingly high numbers of midwives, MSWs and student midwives who don't feel confident in raising concerns about unsafe practice.
Some of the key findings are:
However, the report offers solutions. The evidence we present shows that when heads of midwifery and RCM Health and Safety Representatives work in partnership and take action on health, safety and wellbeing, it does make a difference. Stress levels are lower, wellbeing is better and, importantly, care for women and their families improves. Some key findings include:
The campaign asks organisations to sign up to our Caring for You Charter so that we can improve midwives', MSWs' and student midwives' health, safety and wellbeing at work, so that they are able to provide high-quality care for women and their families. Within the first week of our campaign, Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust became the first organisation to sign up to the Caring for You Charter. We hope this is just the start and that many more organisations will see the benefit of working in partnership with our Health and Safety Representatives to improve conditions for RCM members.
Our campaign will continue for the next 18 months, working to get NHS organisations to sign up to the charter. We believe that by working in partnership, we can make a difference and ensure that we have healthy maternity workplaces that deliver high-quality care.