10/12/2025
So very true, maternity care shouldn't be run on goodwill and it shouldn't be down to those who have never worked in the field to dictate what ratio of staff to patients there should be! So sad to read all that's in the news re maternity care in th UK at the moment. The writing has been on the wall for a decade or more, and we've all been shouting in to the void to try to raise awareness of the safety issues, many of us leaving a job we never ever thought we'd leave because of the way it is running and the impact we could see it having on the people in our care and us too.
I was cabin crew before I became a midwife — and the contrast in safety culture is impossible to ignore ✈️➡️👶
Please sign campaign for midwifery safety link in bio if you agree ⚡️
If cabin crew approached safety the way maternity care is currently forced to, no plane would ever leave the runway.
Before take-off, cabin crew stop everything to run safety checks. They don’t skip them because the flight is busy. They don’t ignore warning lights because they’re short-staffed. And they don’t get blamed later for disasters caused by systemic failures.
Yet in the current NHS midwifery climate, safety checks are often treated as optional when staffing is unsafe, workloads are extreme, and pressure is relentless 🚨
Cabin crew are empowered to ground a plane if safety is compromised.
Midwives raise concerns — and are told to “just manage,” “prioritise,” or “cope.”
Cabin crew work with clear ratios, protected procedures, and a culture where risk is escalated, not normalised.
Midwives are working in conditions where abnormal has become routine — missed observations, delayed escalation, and moral injury are becoming the norm, not the exception 💔
When something goes wrong in aviation, the focus is on systems, culture, and learning.
In maternity care, individuals — often midwives — are too frequently left carrying the blame for environments they did not create.
Women deserve the same safety culture in birth as passengers expect in the air.
And midwives deserve the same protections, authority, and respect as professionals responsible for human lives.
Safety should never depend on goodwill, sacrifice, or silence.
If it’s not safe to fly, the plane doesn’t take off ✋✈️
If it’s not safe to provide care — midwives must be heard 🛑
Do you agree?
