Opinion: Midwife shortage needs fixing

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The news there is a midwife shortage in many parts of New Zealand, including Rotorua, will come as no surprise to any woman who has found themselves with a bun in the oven recently.

By the time a woman is eight or nine weeks along - when they are still on tenterhooks about the pregnancy progressing - finding a local midwife with availability can already be tricky.

It almost feels like, at least to be in with a shot of getting one of their preferred picks, the midwife now needs to be the first port of call after seeing those two lines appear on the pregnancy test!

Local midwife Bronwyn Fleet hits the nail on the head today when she points to the profession not being sustainable in terms of health and wellbeing, as well as the simple fact they are not being paid enough.

Few other professions would be as anti-social when it comes to a work-life balance. Babies don't stick to 9-5 hours so a midwife is always on call, which must eventually wear one down, no matter how rewarding the job.

Fleet quite rightly points out you "can't live on nothing", saying over the years midwives have had few pay rises and the pay hasn't kept pace with inflation and costs.

You could argue there is no more important job than looking after expectant mothers and ensuring babies are brought into the world happy and healthy.

With Immigration New Zealand adding midwives to the "immediate skill shortage" list, hopefully we will see qualified midwives arrive from overseas to plug the gaps.

The College of Midwives and the Ministry of Health are in the process of designing a new funding model for community-based midwives, the result of which should be known when the Budget is delivered in May.

For the sake of future pregnant women and their unborn babies, let's hope it includes a healthy pay rise for our hard-working midwives. They deserve it.