Midwives fear the new department for startups: "Can't go to toilet"

When Sahlgrenska will start deliveries in week 41 instead of week 42, the need for care will increase. This is because startups are more resource intensive compared to if the delivery had started spontaneously. It can take up to three days after a startup before the baby is born.

- We will have more to do, it will be a heavier workload. At work we are already stressed, we do not have time to go to rest, do not always eat or talk to each other. Although we solve it so that the couple may not notice it inside the room, we go on our knees outside, says Lucille M'boge Fredriksson, midwife at Sahlgrenska.

- We solve it when the couples are there, but it is at the expense of our own health, says colleague Camilla Lado.

Sahlgrenska's plan is to establish a new department for startups after the turn of the year, where women are prepared for childbirth. They should then be moved to the maternity ward when it is time to give birth to the baby. Nils Crona, head of operations for childbirth care at Sahlgrenska, hopes that this will improve the working environment for those who remain in the maternity ward.

- The staff working on childbirth will work more purely with birth women, and we will lift off the work with startups, he says.

The new department will recruit six new midwives to the new department. At the same time, they will recruit 30 new nurses to BB, who will, for example, help with the aftercare of Caesarean section. Lucille and Camilla do not want to comment on the earlier start-up, but they are strongly critical of the hospital recruiting nurses instead of midwives.

- We are worried that the women will not receive statutory, equal care when they are cared for by either a nurse or midwife at BB. We want midwives to be hired, we already need 30 midwives today. We are too few as it is, says Camilla Lado.

Nils Crona believes it will be difficult to get hold of midwives.

- We would need another 30-40 midwives. But we don't think we can find enough midwives. So we will supplement it with nurses.

The midwives do not think the fault lies in the lack of midwives.

- We do not agree that this is a shortage, but rather it is a shortage of midwives who want to work in childbirth care as it looks today. With poor work environment and low wages, says Camilla Lado.

But that picture does not share the head of operations.

- I don't think it's really true, there are certainly more midwives to recruit. We should be clear that during a period in life they may find it stimulating to work in childbirth, but it is not always as appealing during other phases of life, says Nils Crona.

The midwives that SVT News West meets are also critical that management disregards other research.

- Why do they choose to focus on the research on early initiation, and not the research that shows the great benefits of one midwife per birth woman at childbirth? It leads to fewer complications, the births go faster because the woman is safe, it leads to fewer interventions and it is cost effective, says Lucille M'boge Fredriksson.