Yorkshire Evening Post Online

West Yorks midwives take shortage fight to No 10

CAMPAIGNING health workers from West Yorkshire hit Number 10 to demand 'More Midwives To Save Lives'.
They say there is a chronic shortage of midwives across the UK, and they want the Government to pay for 10,000 more to be trained.

The group presented a 30,000 name petition, started by a West Yorkshire midwife, at Downing Street on Wednesday.

Leading campaigner Dr Mary Steen is a former midwife with 22 years' experience who worked at Leeds General Infirmary and St James's Hospital.

She said the recent promise of funding for 19 more midwives in Leeds showed there was "light at the end of the tunnel" but more needs to be done to reduce midwives' massive caseloads, to retain staff and to provide community post-natal care to mums.

"There are still difficulties," she said. "The birth of a baby is often the birth of a family and midwives have a pivotal role in that. We have got to get it right."

The petition was put together by Midwivesonline.com, a campaigning website set up by Bradford-based midwife Catharine Parker-Littler.

It has now been signed by 30,000 midwives, health professionals and parents. Despite the wider concerns, a spokesman for Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said the situation in Leeds was "very positive".