Last week I spoke with Cheryl Samuels a brilliant midwife, professional midwifery advocate and lecturer, who started an impressive ‘Midwives Matter’ petition which amassed over 128,000 signatures, about the current needs for midwifery services in the UK.
Cheryl’s petition alongside the March with Midwives campaign has shined a spotlight on the need for changes in maternity services in the UK and has led to Parliamentary debates and questions to Ministers.
During our conversation we spoke about staff retention and shortages (which is something we are especially feeling in Gloucestershire), training costs and how we can use Cheryl’s academic networks to think through practical changes to midwifery training in order to bring about new recruits more quickly whilst keeping safety at the forefront of training.
It is important for babies, parents and families, that we do not give up on our work to improve maternity services and I am hopeful that our new Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Steve Barclay MP, will be looking into this important matter.
