a night with the midwives of a maternity hospital in Nancy

It is an incessant ballet of white and green coats. It is 8 p.m. at the regional university maternity hospital in Nancy. Hundreds of birth announcements cover the walls adjoining the care room, and the photos of newborns seem to watch the comings and goings of midwives, childcare assistants and doctors.

A midwife rushes to the operating room. In the absence of the on-call nurse, she assists the obstetrician during a cesarean. This time, the intervention must be done within thirty minutes. It is a “code orange”. The expression resonates with the placard stuck to the door of the guard room: “Midwives. Code black. “ A color to signify all the anger of the profession, called to demonstrate, Thursday, October 7.

Among the main demands: an increase in remuneration, an increase in staff and, finally, consideration of the medical status of midwives. Within the Nancy establishment, they were to be around forty out of a hundred to participate in the national mobilization.

For now, Claire, Anne and Fabien start their twelve-hour shift with a bang. A trainee and two childcare assistants accompany them to manage the seven delivery rooms. “At night, it’s complicated, we are understaffed as in many maternity hospitals”, observes Fabien. Claire adds: “It’s not easy, reliefs like that. Patients everywhere and no one in the emergency room since 6 p.m. “

Coordinator of the birthing room, Valérie George understands the demands. She recalls that the midwives are here, as in the other maternities, “Standardized” according to the number of deliveries per year, according to decrees dating from 1998, although “The profession and practices have evolved enormously. “

“True medical liability”

The profession no longer attracts. “Young people no longer want to work in the hospital because of the nights, weekends and prefer the liberal. For the first time this year, we have failed to recruit summer replacements. “ Compensation is no longer judged to be up to par. “A young midwife is paid 1,600 euros net, underlines the coordinator, after five years of studies, including a first year of medicine ”, and the profession is not recognized in the public health code as medical. “However, in court, we have real medical responsibility”, recalls Valérie George. The recent negotiations, the increase of 100 euros promised by the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran? “A handout. “ To continue in the profession today, it is obvious that“You have to love it”, she says. For her, it is “Visceral”.

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