Back in October, numerous midwives protested and went on strike. The protests not only continue to this day, they expanded!
There are about 23,000 midwives in France, but they are becoming fewer as the profession becomes less and less attractive. Five years of training for 1,650 euros net (which is very little by French standards), for a job that knows no closing time and no breaks. In order to fight for better conditions, numerous midwives throughout the country have joined forces and made demands. They want the profession of midwifery to be treated as a medical profession, as it is written in the code, and not as a paramedical profession, as is the case, for example, with secretaries in the health sector.
One midwife said that she attended an average of 250 births a month, and that the number was increasing, especially since smaller maternity wards were being closed and the larger maternity wards, which were already overcrowded, thus had even more births. There are also big differences between public and private maternity wards, says a nurse from Toulouse. While there were already tariff improvements for the publicly employed midwives, the privately employed midwives still earn over 500 to 800 euro less - tendency rising by the improvements of the publicly employed ones. The responsible ministry had already spoken in the summer of last year of the fact that the salaries of the midwives must rise, which did not happen so far. The protests of the midwives are an important part of the protest in the health care system, which especially in the pandemic clearly showed that it is necessary to fight for a health care system in the service of the people!
(Source: demvolkedienen.org)
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