A new Government proposal to replenish a dwindling midwifery labour force may do some good but is unlikely to entice many women who have quit the profession to return, southern midwives say.
In 2019, Otago midwives called for action to alleviate their thinning ranks, after the Dunedin lead maternity carer midwife workforce fell to just 14 people — the city has a four-year pregnancy average of almost 1600.
"You can’t coach midwives out of staffing woes," New Zealand College of Midwives Otago regional co-chairwoman Charlie Ferris said.
"It will be hard to recruit midwives back into the workforce because the ones leaving are often not just sitting around at home, they’re retraining, moving overseas, or retiring.
"The best we can hope for is regaining the midwives we’ve lost in the last few years, but without a decent pay rise and assured safe staffing levels, they’re unlikely to take the chance at returning back to work."
While having coaches sounded like a potentially useful initiative, they would need to be clinically experienced midwives, and those people were already in short supply, Ms Ferris said.
"Are there enough midwives waiting in the wings ready to be coached to actually fix this crisis, or is this a band-aid fix on a nasty problem that runs deep in our DHBs — the undervaluing of women as health professionals?"
In 2020, the Government announced it had set aside $35million for a maternity action plan, and the $5million expenditure announced by Dr Verrall yesterday will come from that fund.
“I know the cost of the return to practice programme has been a barrier for some people," Dr Verrall said.
"That’s why additional funding of $1600 per midwife is being made available for up to 40 midwives in the first year, and 60 midwives in further years, to encourage them to refresh their practising certificates and return to this rewarding career."
