The situation is unprecedented. Since Monday, April 11, the maternity hospital of the agglomeration of Nevers (CHAN) has been closed. The fourteen midwives of the service are on sick leave and the regional health agency (ARS) of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté had to call on the health reserve.
At present, only emergencies are taken care of. “We are still able to accommodate women about to give birth, reassures Victoria Simonetta, CHAN’s communication officer. When labor is not at an advanced stage, patients are transferred to a nearby maternity ward. » The Nevers maternity hospital is the only one in the Nièvre department, after numerous closures over the past fifteen years. Between Monday and Wednesday, fifteen women due to give birth had been transferred to the maternities of Moulins, Montluçon, Bourges, Auxerre or Dijon, the closest being about an hour from Nevers.
Guillaume Rameau is one of the members of the team arrested since Monday. He says he arrived “to the end” physically. “We have been alerting to the situation for months, he explains. Since September, we have had ten departures out of twenty-four midwives. » For him, the “drop too much” falls at the beginning of April when the management announces to them that the service will now be able to operate with two day midwives. Initially, the maternity ward, which carries out more than 1,100 deliveries per year, was running with five a day. A ratio that was reduced to four in January, then three, and finally two recently. “In delivery rooms, we can have up to six patients a day. Add to that the aftermath of birth, emergency consultations. Two midwives to manage all this? It’s an unsustainable pace that does not guarantee women’s safety.”explains the maieutician.
According to management, the vast majority of sick leave was filed on Monday April 11. Before cracking, Guillaume Rameau says he spent the weekend before his stop running between birth rooms: “I would tell patients, ‘I’ll be back in ten minutes’ and I’d come back an hour and a half later. We are forced to spend much less time with women. » David Boucher, secretary of the CFDT section of CHAN insists: “This is not a strike movement. It’s not a whim. Monday morning, caregivers simply couldn’t take it anymore. Many are medicated. »
Attractiveness crisis
“Some midwives have chained to thirteen-hour shifts, working on weekends, at night, says the union representative. They lasted nine months with a third fewer colleagues. There it broke. » He also underlines the psychological pressure suffered by the employees: “They constantly work with a sword of Damocles hanging over their heads. The lives of women and children are in danger. And if there is anything, it is the midwives who will remain guilty. »
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