Have your say on the resolutions shortlist

Mary Dorrell is Chairman of Norfolk Federation’s Public Affairs Committee and a member of Barford, Wramplingham and District WI. Here she explains why it is important for WI members to have their say on this year’s resolution shortlist.

To access the shortlist, background notes, PowerPoint presentations and quizzes visit the resolutions page of the WI website.

The WI has over 100 years of campaigning to its credit. We are not party-political you see, but we do take on politicians to get things done.

In 1930 we were campaigning to get an improved and adequate water supply into all rural areas in England and Wales. We have campaigned for Equal Pay for women since 1943, and in 1953 we were successful in changing arrangements for children in hospital so that parents were able to visit.

Our ‘No More Violence Against Women’ mandate dates from 1975, and this is a campaign we are still working on today. In Norfolk we worked with other community groups to create a giant white ribbon totem for International Day Against Violence in support of the White Ribbon campaign.

We also have many successful environmental campaigns. In 1927 we spoke out against the pollution of our seas from waste oil thrown over from ships, and the famous 1954 resolution on litter led to the creation of the Keep Britain Tidy campaign.  

More recently our SOS Honey Bee campaign won The Third Sector Excellence Charity Partnership Award in 2014 for our partnership with Friends of the Earth. This campaign successfully pushed the government to launch the National Pollinator Strategy which sets out a plan to support bees and other pollinators.

Norfolk has always played a proud part in the resolutions process. Hellesdon WI put forward a successful resolution in 1964 to campaign for a ban on smoking in public places and in 2008 the Care not Custody campaign was borne out of a resolution originally devised by Brundall WI, and was successfully proposed by Norfolk Federation.

These mandates form the basis of campaigns supported by 220,000 WI members in 6,300 WIs across England, Wales and the Islands. All WI mandates come from ordinary WI members like you, working together in their own WIs.

Many WIs were hard at work over the summer, conducting research and discussions to put forward their own ideas for resolutions. In September the 85 resolutions submitted were considered by representatives from WI Federations to agree the shortlisted six you saw in the November/December edition of WI Life.

Every WI member has the chance to cast their selection for the resolution they support the most. Now it’s your turn!

Guest blog from WI member Nicola Hatch Lighterness about the new WI report 'Support Overdue (2017)'

WI member, baby blogger, and new mum Nicola Hatch Lighterness, welcomes the publication of the WI’s new report into women’s experiences of maternity care and shares her own story showing why we need more midwives now.

In 2012, WI members voted to start a campaign to push the Government for more midwives. We had heard horror stories about the care of our friends, our sisters, our daughters; we started to suspect that we weren’t alone in our struggles with postnatal depression or breastfeeding; those of working as midwives or support staff had begun to suffer from extreme burn-out. Something needed to change and as the largest women’s organisation in the UK, if we didn't speak up who would?

I joined the WI in 2014 when I was trying to have a baby. By that time the WI had already published a report examining the experiences of women giving birth and over 30,000 members had participated in the campaign. We were making progress. The NHS, citing our report, commissioned a major review of maternity services and the Secretary of State for Health admitted that we needed more midwives. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published its first ever safe staffing guidance for maternity settings in 2015, which the WI contributed evidence to and warmly welcomed.

But we are still missing 3,500 midwives in England, a shortage I experienced first-hand. The WI is today publishing a new report – Support Overdue (2017) – which sadly shows that my experience is not unique. The report found that as many as 50% of women will give birth in labour wards today that are short-staffed, leaving many women alone while they are in labour or unable to receive essential care like pain relief.

Being pregnant is a joyful time for many women, but it can also leave us feeling vulnerable. Midwives are often our lifeline, the person that’s standing in our corner, making sure everything is ok and reassuring us when things get tough. So many mums I know speak glowingly of how lovely their midwives were. So what is going wrong?

Well, the WI found that a big part of the problem is fragmented care. With the birth-rate holding steady, and midwife numbers dropping, fewer midwives must care for more women. Midwives are so pressed for time that they are often pulled out of community care and into labour wards. This means that women can see lots of different midwives during their care and never have a chance to build a relationship with any of them!

Unfortunately I know all about this fragmented care, although on paper I was one of the lucky ones. In my local area, it is common practice to see the same midwife all throughout your pregnancy. For someone like me, who suffers from anxiety, this was excellent. I got to know my midwife and she got to know me. This meant that when she had to explain to me the possible complications of the low levels of Papp A that my pregnancy suffered from, she was able to do so in a way that didn't send me into a complete panic! Any test results that she had, she would give me in a reassuring way, and when my blood pressure started to creep up towards the end of my pregnancy and there was the potential for pre-eclampsia, I knew I was in safe hands.

By once my son was born, my care started to break down. Due to an admin error, I had been attending my antenatal appointments in the next town. This was corrected after the birth. All very well and good, except my new midwives, whilst very caring, didn't know me in the same way as my old midwife did.

I saw multiple midwives in my 28 day postnatal care period. I was unable to build a relationship with any of them and they didn't understand my anxiety. They couldn't understand why I would break down in tears during appointments.  They didn't understand why I struggled on with breastfeeding despite hating it, despite it making me feel more depressed. They didn't understand- and didn't anticipate- my constant worry.

All of this was made even worse by the fact that the midwives were too busy to come to my home more than once. I had to walk 30 minutes each way for the rest of my postnatal appointments. For someone with anxiety issues- like me- this was a daunting prospect. In fact, as many as 20% of new mums suffer from some kind of postnatal depression and we’re supposed to be seen during this critical time as often as we need to be. The appointments are also supposed to be at our home or in a location convenient to us. But for me- and all the other new mums in my area- this didn't happen because the midwives, wonderful though they were, didn't have the time.

Travelling to these appointments was difficult for me because I felt like a nervous wreck. I look back at this time now and those feelings of being overwhelmed are enough to stop me from having another child. This is why the WI is recommending that as a bare minimum standard all new mums receive midwife visits in their home at least twice postnatally. This would have helped me so much. Midwives want to do it, but there are not enough of them to go around.

I know we’re fond of saying ‘all’s well that ends well’ and for me it did end well. I got through my difficult postnatal time. But the WI thinks that just ‘getting through’ is not good enough anymore. Nearly three quarters of a million women will use the maternity service every year. These women and their families rely on midwives to be there when it matters. Policy makers need to act now and end the shortage of midwives.

To read Nicola’s baby blog visit: http://allthingsspliced.co.uk/

To learn more about the NFWI’s campaign for More Midwives visit: https://www.thewi.org.uk/campaigns/current-campaigns-and-initiatives/more-midwives

To read Support Overdue (2017) visit: https://www.thewi.org.uk/campaigns/current-campaigns-and-initiatives/more-midwives/support-overdue-2017

Nicola and other members of Brentwood Belles WI

WI research shows more midwives still needed

Today the WI and NCT have launched our second report into maternity services. Now we need your help to make sure the Government hears our call for more midwives.

The report is the next stage for the More Midwives campaign, which was launched in 2012 after a resolution calling for an end to the shortage of midwives, was passed at the WI Annual Meeting.

While women were generally positive about the care they experienced, we found that the shortage of midwives continues to impact mothers, babies and their families. Despite four years having passed since our first report, our research suggests that little progress has been made in that time.

Shockingly, half of women told us that they had experienced at least one ‘red-flag’ event during childbirth. A red-flag event is a sign that there may not be enough midwives available to give women and babies the care they need. This could mean having to wait more than 30 minutes to get pain relief, or not receiving one-to-one care during labour.

We also found that postnatal care is still failing far too many women. Almost one in five women (18%) did not see a midwife as often as they needed to postnatally. This resulted in delayed diagnoses of health problems at a critical time for mothers and babies.

Almost a third of these women were forced to turn to other parts of the NHS like GPs, walk-in centres or even A&E to get the help they needed. This is simply not sustainable when our NHS services are under such huge pressure.

The vast majority of women (88%) told us that they did not know their midwife before they went into labour or gave birth. This is the same result as we found in our first research report, and suggests that continuity of care remains an aspiration, not a reality.

Marylyn Haines Evans, Public Affairs Chair of the NFWI said:

“The findings from this report show that chronic midwife shortages (an estimated 3,500 in England alone) continue to undermine the delivery of high quality care for women and their families.  Half of the women we spoke to reported red-flag events during their care, suggesting that staffing levels are at crisis point.

“Women have told us that midwives are working hard to do the very best that they can, but that there are simply not enough of them to go around. We are calling on the Government and the NHS to end this chronic midwife shortage immediately and take the necessary steps to ensure midwives are supported to remain in the profession.”

It is clear that we need urgent action to address the shortage of midwives. We now need WI members to write to their MPs and AMs and encourage them to raise the issue with the Government in Westminster and Wales. You can download a template letter here.