About 100 people took part in the colourful midwives march through central Tauranga. Photo / Andrew Warner
About 100 people took part in the colourful midwives march through central Tauranga. Photo / Andrew Warner
Tauranga's midwives gathered in Red Square yesterday and marched through the CBD with a message for Health Minister David Clark.
"Pay us our due" one sign read, another "world-class but underfunded".
There were about 100 people taking part in the colourful rally – local midwives, mums and their children, supportive husbands, partners, family members and friends.
Cars and trucks drove past the group and tooted their car horns loudly in support. This was met with cheers.
Pongakawa mother-of-two Sjaan Fahey was at the march with her 3-year-old daughter Iris and 1-year-old son Will.
"It's such a scary thing having children, there's nothing more life changing than that really, and you have these women who are so experienced and know exactly what they're doing."
Pregnant Pongakawa mother-of-two Sjaan Fahey was at the march with her 3-year-old daughter Iris and 22-month-old son Will. Photo / Andrew Warner
The march set off about noon. Banners and signs were carried, music was played, prams were pushed, blue, pink and purple balloons flew above matching black shirts.
"Where's David?" someone said over a loudhailer.
Clark was in Wellington, where close to 1000 midwives and supporters delivered a petition calling for urgent sustainable funding for midwifery.
Clark spoke to the midwives and told the crowd the Government was listening.
"The stories that are not told often enough are the stories about the conditions in which staff are working in our healthcare system. There are people – allied health workers, nurses, doctors, midwives – who expect us to have a plan, to own the problem and to take action. And that is precisely what we intend to do."
Clark was presented with a book of stories from midwives about their own circumstances and a petition signed by 13,000 people calling for pay equity for midwives.
The upcoming Budget would include a package to start addressing the issues facing midwives but Clark said the Government could not solve everything in one Budget.
The Wellington march was one of six protests across the country, with others in Auckland, Dunedin, Tauranga, Taupo and Hamilton.
Tauranga midwife Cara Kellett helped organise the march in the CBD.
"We wanted to hold one because Tauranga is feeling the effects of not enough midwives in the region – women can't find midwives."
Tauranga midwives Cara Kellett (left) and Sarah Thorn. Photo / Andrew Warner
The 34-year-old also organised a "Save Midwives" meeting earlier this year with local MPs but that was cancelled after all the MPs said they could not attend.
"We didn't feel heard and so I wanted to bring the attention to something that really is a crisis in Tauranga and hence why we've brought the march to our little town."
Kellett said the crowd gathered in Red Square was "united" in their concern for the sector and its call for fair work and pay conditions.
"They're here to support us ... because they're concerned about what the future means for them and their future babies, or their children who eventually will one day have children themselves."
Kellett spoke of the pay structure that midwives were trying to change.
"Currently the structure is that we work for 28 weeks before we receive our first payment. No person in their right mind would work for 28 weeks before they got a single dollar."
Sarah Thorn, 37, is a self-employed midwife in Tauranga.
She was taking part in the march "to support midwives locally and nationally".
"It's a really valuable system and we need to be heard."
Thorn, who is in her seventh year as a midwife, said she had noticed a "huge decline" in local midwives.
"I'm originally from Auckland and moving down here, there was a really well populated area of midwives. Over those seven years, that's at least halved."
