ITV News Correspondent Rebecca Barry reports on the pressure maternity services are under
I meet Anne (not her real name), a midwife, as she’s preparing for a night shift during which her maternity unit will, once again, be under-staffed.
Before she starts work she worries that lives will be put at risk. When she comes home she’s often reduced to tears.
"I cry a lot," she tells me. "Tears of frustration and sheer exhaustion.
"It's stressful. It's exhausting. It's no exaggeration to say that midwives are on their knees at the moment with exhaustion through short staffing, through the pressures of the job.
"And we are heartbroken that we’re not being able to give the level of care that we so desperately want to give."
'Stressful, exhausting, midwives are on their knees'
The Royal College of Midwives has warned of an "exodus" of midwives, with an estimated shortage of 2,500 across the UK. In a recent survey 57% of their members said they would leave the NHS in the next year.
Anne tells me she came into the profession because she wanted to "empower and support" women, but now she feels like she’s letting them down.
She says she believes babies lives are being put at risk because of the pressures midwives are under "things are being missed within their care, within women's antenatal care, we can't act as quickly as we need to sometimes."
She describes regular delays assessing women who come in with concerns.
Are women being seen within the proper timeframes?
"The ideal is that...
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