Many midwives on strike in maternity hospitals in Toulouse upgrading their profession
Midwives, in the street in Paris, also went on strike in Toulouse in several maternity hospitals, this Thursday, October 7. The Union clinic closed its doors.
Marion Pichon, midwife at the private maternity of Sarrus-Teinturiers (ex-Rive Gauche) in Toulouse, in the Saint-Cyprien district, takes a short break this Thursday, October 7, before tackling a “day that will be a full day ”.
She went on strike again in support of her colleagues from all over France who were demonstrating in Paris, but also Toulouse women since a bus left the day before for the capital. “Some even took the plane Thursday morning to make the return trip,” she says.
But she was “requisitioned” car “eight patients are giving birth today” at the Sarrus clinic. According to her, out of about fifty midwives employed by this Toulouse maternity hospital, “97% are on strike and have succeeded in the movement”.
For the time being, the responses of the Minister of Health Olivier Véran do not seem to satisfy a profession which has already launched a national protest movement on September 24, 25 and 26, “for decent care of our patients and remuneration. up to our responsibility ”.
Other strike movements here and there have been reported – contacted, the CHU has not communicated the rate of strikers at the Paule de Viguier maternity hospital -. As for the maternity ward of the Union, where the staff has started a standoff with the management since last weekend, it has closed its doors altogether. Confirmation from the Regional Health Agency (ARS) of Occitanie.
“The private sector is despised”
“Following a strike movement without warning from the midwives of the Union clinic, the maternity unit is no longer able to accommodate parturients”, warns the ARS. Who advises, in case of emergency, “to future mothers of Haute-Garonne and neighboring departments not to spontaneously go to this establishment and to contact the 15th which will direct them to the maternity service of another establishment where they will be taken care of ”.
For Marion Pichon, the job is no longer a dream: “After five years of higher education, who today wants to come to work day and night, on weekends with the fatigue that accumulates for 1,700 euros per month ? asks the midwife.
“The situation of salaried midwives in the private sector has once again been despised,” she continues. Our working conditions are degraded in the most total indifference. Our workforce does not allow safe support for our patients and their newborns. And for good reason, the decrees which govern our organization date from October 1998. Our Council of the Order has long alerted the public authorities to the shortage of midwives and the exhaustion of the professionals in place, but no suitable response has been made. has been fixed ”.