“THE system is broken!” So said one of the placards held up at the March for Midwives events held on Sunday at various places in the country, including Worcester.

Midwives gathered to express their concerns over being short-staffed and saying that maternity services are in crisis. In fact, a recent survey by the Royal College of Midwives said that 57 per cent of staff said that they were thinking of leaving the NHS within a year.

However, more than that, the power of midwives’ stories hits home.

I recently read a blog which described a normal working day for one midwife and the picture it gave was hellish. No staff; no lunchbreak; constant pressures; low morale; and tears and exhaustion on getting home putting huge pressure on normal family life.

What is more disturbing is that the group, as a whole, feel that they have no choice but to speak out.

I know midwives! They, as a group, put their patients first; they seek to be the voice of calm and professional reassurance to people facing the most amazing and anxiety provoking part of human life.

They know that speaking out will cause concern amongst parents-to-be; so the fact that they have gone this far to highlight a midwifery crisis raises loud alarm bells.

And the thought of staff dragging themselves into work to face another day of pressures is unsustainable: for the NHS; for staff’s mental health, and for the wellbeing of pregnant women.

So the March for Midwives is a brave step. But my guess is that we could just as easily have seen a march for respiratory nurses; critical care staff; operating theatre staff; and the list could go on.

As I came into work this morning I met a friend who works as a ward administrator. It didn’t take long for her to tell me how under-staffed and over-worked she was. How she did it because she cared but that she couldn’t enjoy her time off as she knew the pile of work she would come back to.

So for all those people who have expressed things privately to me, I will express it publicly: I think the system is broken.

It is above my pay grade and skillset to sort it out. But the first thing I would do is to listen, really listen, to the experiences of our staff.