"The pay increase sounds nice on the surface but if you break it down, it doesn't come close to being able to cope with living costs or addressing any of the problems expressed time after time."
"I'm sick of being paid less than I could earn working at a supermarket," Ramsay said.
The mother-of-four said she had just worked a 60-hour week and was on her way to the hospital to support a woman in labour who she will need to be with for the next 12 hours.
"It's not safe for the pregnant woman or the midwife."
And she's not alone. An Auckland community midwife, who would not be named, said she had hit breaking point and was ending her 20-year career.
"I couldn't tell you how many tears I have wiped, how many marriages I have saved, how much new life I have had pass through my hands, how much my heart has broken helping women deliver their precious babies gone before they could get to know them, and how many lives have been saved by timely midwifery decisions and actions.
"But yet I get paid less than a digger driver ... I can't do it anymore," the Auckland midwife said.
Former midwife Veronica Storey left the profession two years ago but feels for her colleagues struggling with burnout.
"Many of them have already faced challenging health conditions, cancer, autoimmune diseases and burnout," Storey said.
They are just three of the hundreds of woman who have been posting on New Zealand College of Midwives (NZCOM)'s Facebook page and the Dear David page expressing how upset they are.
NZCOM deputy chief executive Alison Eddy said the college was aware that many midwives were waiting on the Budget announcement before deciding whether to keep going or not.
"We have certainly heard many were quitting ... there are many areas around New Zealand that have historically been populated with midwives and now have a shortage. And we know many rural areas have hit crisis point."
For the last two years, NZCOM and the Ministry of Health have been working on a co-design funding model, but after the Budget Eddy said there was a lot of uncertainty.
Today, Health Minister Dr David Clark said he acknowledged that some midwives would have liked the Government to go further in this Budget.
"But I think we have struck the right balance and laid the foundations for a sustainable midwifery sector," Clark said.
He said it was a significant boost and would make a real difference to their incomes.
"There is also $10 million over two years to recognise the costs associated with being self-employed – that will also help midwives' finances.
"We are also putting $16 million towards ensuring safe hours of work, to assist midwives with the cost of calling in colleagues to take over care during a lengthy labour."
Clark said he expected conversations between the Ministry of Health and the College to be ongoing.
"But the package of additional support for midwives announced in the Budget addresses a number of issues raised by the College."
