“Let’s not forget that each person passed into the benevolent arms of a midwife when they were born! », Laetitia, 25 years old. This Thursday, this midwife, who works at
South Francilien Hospital Center in Corbeil-Essonnes (Essonne), will display his armband on strike… but will not be able to beat the pavement.
This is the third time in a month that midwives have gone on strike. But as they are requisitioned each time, their movement remains invisible. So today, they are changing their organization: “we are going to call the doctors all the time, to show that without midwives, motherhood does not work!” », She continues. This time, therefore, some will go to demonstrate at midday in Paris, from Montparnasse to the windows of the Ministry of Health, to warn about the increasingly degraded conditions of their work … and the insecurity that this represents for mothers and children in to be born.
“More than a third of the workforce is missing”
“We are reaching the breaking point: more than a third of the workforce is missing,” explains Laetitia. In just over a year, the young woman has seen colleagues leave and positions remain vacant in this maternity hospital which provides 5,000 deliveries per year. “There are 60 midwives left, we should normally be 90 to 110,” she continues. If we follow the recommendations, there should be eight midwives, whereas there are six during the day and five at night. “
Result: the professionals who remain are exhausted. “The guards are linked to compensate for this lack of personnel, up to 16 guards of 12 hours per month, with a grueling alternation of day and night. Many times we don’t have time to eat or breathe! This is why 100% of the workforce has been on strike for two months.
“The movement is gaining momentum”
It is not only in Corbeil-Essonnes that the lights are red. To the maternity Delafontaine (Seine-Saint-Denis), all midwives will be on strike and absent from the premises. Only emergencies will be taken care of by fellow doctors. Moreover, a rare thing, the
National College of French Gynecologists and Obstetricians (CNGOF) said its support and concern in a statement: “Maternal and perinatal health is directly threatened by this degraded care offer and the short and medium term prospects do not allow us to be optimistic.”
“We have the impression that the movement is gaining momentum,” says Laetitia. This is the first time that the media have talked about it and that so many midwives are mobilized. “
“It endangers women”
However, this is not the first time that they have raised their demands. Already at the beginning of July, theOrder of Midwives sounded the alarm bells because many maternity hospitals were understaffed. The vocations crisis is known: again this year, the students after the first year of medicine shunned this path, and places remained vacant. The snake is biting its tail: to attract new professionals, working conditions should be improved… with more staff.
“Midwives no longer practice in safe conditions and this endangers women, denounces Caroline Combot, general secretary of
National trade union organization of midwives (ONSSF). For example, a woman who has just given birth should be monitored for two hours because of the risk of bleeding. If you manage the emergency room at the same time, while you are in the operating room for a cesarean, you risk finding the patient in a pool of blood. “
“Some patients do not have a place in the delivery room,” adds Laetitia. As a result, we deliver in the emergency room or transfer her to another maternity hospital. »With the risk that things will get complicated on the way. A danger moreover well identified by the patients. “The current ostrich policy is dangerous,” Interassocial collective around birth (Ciane). The lack of staff increases the risk of obstetric violence and the traumatic experience of childbirth. Carers suffering from poor working conditions can no longer adequately meet the needs of women, couples and their babies. The midwives recognized it, by throwing the hashtag
#Jesuismaltreating in the fall of 2020. “
What are the demands?
However, Olivier Véran has just made concessions. On September 16, after a report from the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (Igas) confirming the need to upgrade this profession, the Minister announced a premium of 100 euros gross for midwives in the hospital, and a salary increase of 100 euros net per month. Or 180 euros net, which is added to the 183 euros provided by the Ségur de la santé. Insufficient, sweeps Laetitia. “Nurses’ salaries are equivalent to ours, while the minister wants to extend our studies by one year. Who will do a bac + 6 to earn 1,800 euros net at the start of their career? “The report from the Igas recommended a revaluation of 600 euros per month.
But the salary is only part of the problem. Because the question of human resources, as we have seen, remains central. The minimum numbers remain defined by texts dating from 1998. A time when midwives had fewer tasks. And these are just recommendations. Perinatal decrees, negotiated since 2019, were to make these minimum numbers compulsory … and above all increase them. But the minister buried these decrees, igniting the powder. “For a maternity hospital of average activity, with around 2,500 births per year, we had to go from 14 midwives to 25. For a large maternity unit, we had to arrive at 45”, explains Caroline Combot.
She adds that the question of the status of midwives has still not been decided. “In the hospital, they are managed like paramedics, while they are medical in terms of competence and responsibility. If the Igas proposed to grant them “a specific public official status”, the minister prefers to maintain this ambivalent status. “But if we had this medical status, we could combine an activity in the hospital and in liberal, continues Laetitia. Many colleagues want it. And that would make it possible to repopulate the hospitals. “