Yesterday, the Otago Daily Times reported the concerns of local midwives, who fear the lead maternity carer (LMC) system will collapse due to the number of people leaving the profession.
In 2014, more than 70 LMC midwives were taking bookings in the city but there are now about 14.
The Southern District Health Board is providing midwifery care through the Queen Mary Maternity Centre; this was meant to have been short-term over the holiday period but has been extended due to the number of women unable to book a community midwife.
Mr Woodhouse, a Dunedin list MP, said he believed 90 women had enrolled with the Dunedin Hospital service before Christmas.
"That is an extraordinary number given the model that is meant to be followed, it is a very big issue, as the workload for midwives is unsustainable."
Mr Woodhouse said the "downward spiral" in midwife numbers could be addressed if the Government found agreement in its long-running negotiations with the College of Midwives to settle the college’s judicial review application, which alleged discrimination against midwives based on gender.
"It is scandalous that the Government has sat on that for two years and done nothing about it."
A reasonable pay settlement would encourage midwives back to the job, Mr Woodhouse believed.
"If it is left any longer, my confidence in that would drop quite dramatically."
Associate Minister of Health Julie Anne Genter said the Government needed to help midwives stay in the profession.
"I know our midwives are under pressure and we have more work to do to ensure the people supporting our new parents and babies are sustained and cared for," Ms Genter said.
"This Government has increased payments to midwives by 4.9% last year, and 8.9% in 2018 so we know midwives did not get payment increases for a long time under the previous government."
College of Midwives Dunedin representative Maureen Donnelly said the SDHB was doing what it could to manage a situation not of its own making.
"The SDHB is the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff," she said.
"They have had to do something because they have to provide that service if the midwives aren’t in the community and women cannot find an LMC midwife."
Hospital midwives did not work under the same regulation as community midwives, which meant many women were missing out on crucial care, such as a mandatory home visit within 24 hours of leaving hospital, Dunedin midwife Sue Nash said.
The workload in the city, which had a four year pregnancy average of almost 1600, was unsustainable for just 14 LMC midwives, she said.
"You could do deliveries but couldn’t do anything else, you couldn’t do all the ante natal and post natal care ... our job is to make sure mum and baby are safe and well, and for some women that can be an enormous amount of work."
