Director of the Bethlehem Birthing Centre Chloe Wright said the Birthing Centre was the solution to demand issues in the area. Photo / Supplied
Director of the Bethlehem Birthing Centre Chloe Wright said the Birthing Centre was the solution to demand issues in the area. Photo / Supplied
Tauranga midwives say they are having to turn away clients amid a nationwide midwife shortage.
But the city's dedicated birthing facility says it – and its midwifery staff – is being underused, with 2000 beds a year lying empty.
Midwife numbers have risen in Tauranga but local experts say it'sstill not enough for the city's booming population.
For three years, Ruby Meiklejohn has been delivering babies in the Tauranga area and while she is adamant she loves the job she said, without a doubt, midwives were being stretched.
"There are simply not enough LMC (lead maternity carer) midwives and unfortunately, some women are missing out on a midwife.
"Woman are calling up midwives at six weeks in a panic because they can't find anyone."
BOP Babies
In the holiday season last year, Meiklejohn remembered a "stress" on the sector which she believed was due to LMCs being on annual leave, but nine months later the stress hadn't disappeared, she said.
"I take my hat off to the LMC midwives who work for years and years but I don't think I can do that, I'm not sure how long I could do it for but I would hope it would be longer than six years.
"We are having to change our caseloads to make it more sustainable for ourselves, but that doesn't mean there are fewer women getting pregnant."
Independent midwife Cara Kellett has taken her workload down to make it sustainable for her to work. Photo / File
Tauranga midwife Cara Kellett told the Bay of Plenty Times last year she was sometimes working up to 80 hours a week and sacrificed sleep to keep up with her workload.
Now both Kellett and Meiklejohn had reduced their caseloads for ''longevity'' but Kellet said demand for midwife services ''is insanely high''.
New Zealand College of Midwives Bay of Plenty and Tairawhiti regional chairwoman Kelly Pidgeon confirmed in Tauranga there was a distinct shortage of midwives for the number of women needing them in the community.
While there were a lot of registered midwives, Pidgeon said many of those were not working or had a smaller caseload to be more sustainable.
"On the face of it, it looks like we have a lot more midwives when in reality we have less midwife working capacity."
The Bay of Plenty District Health Board said like other DHBs around the country, it was experiencing the impact of a national midwifery shortage, the number of pregnant women and new mothers now requiring more complex care and the shortage of LMCs.
Midwives
But since February 2018, Tauranga Hospital has seen an increase of 11 midwives in permanent employment and 13 midwives in casual employment, which makes up part of the 129 registered midwives in the Tauranga area.
There is also a current vacancy of at least three full-time positions - or a 3.4 full-time equivalent.
Midwifery manager Kirsty Rance said there was no information on when the hospital reached capacity, but she said there was a high utilisation of the maternity unit beds and if additional space was required, surgical services beds could be used or as a last resort, the Bethlehem Birthing Centre.
Tauranga Hospital has 13 midwives employed and others in casual employment. Photo / File
Meanwhile, the birthing centre says it had 2000 empty bed nights in the last year and staff were not working to full capacity.
Director Chloe Wright blamed the DHB for not utilising the service which has 13 in-house midwives.
"The centre is the solution to the demand issues in this area, it simply needs to be fully utilised by the DHB," Wright said.
"If we had a shared model we would certainly be able to take the pressure off them and free up beds for those that desperately need them for various medical reasons."
But Bay of Plenty District Health Board chief operating Officer Pete Chandler said it did transfer some women if they need an extended length of stay.
''Routinely it is not a good idea, however, to split what is usually a relatively short length of stay across two facilities.''
Chloe Wright and Nicky Campbell at the Bethlehem Birth Centre in 2014. Photo / File
The Ministry of Health workforce deputy director-general Anna Clarke said the ministry recognised there was more work to be done to support midwives and ensure services are available to meet the needs of whānau, women and babies.
She said a voluntary bonding scheme was a practical initiative run by the ministry to encourage newly qualified health professionals to work in the communities that need them most.
"The Bay of Plenty DHB region was included as an eligible hard-to-staff community for midwives in 2018, and since that time six new graduate midwives have registered to work the first three to five years of their career in the region."
