Our members tell us they are exhausted, overstretched and working in unsustainable conditions. 45% of midwives report burnout often or always, and only 16% feel there are enough staff to do their job properly. Midwives work an estimated 100,000 unpaid hours every week just to keep services functioning, with 87% saying their units are not safely staffed.   

Speaking about the campaign, Gill Walton said: “The fundamental issue is that you cannot deliver safe maternity care with exhausted and overstretched staff. Well-rested maternity staff who have manageable workloads provide better, safer care. We need urgent, decisive action backed by ring-fenced, sustainable funding. Without safe staffing, care simply cannot be safe.” 

RCM representatives are supporting our members in the workplace to raise these issues with their employers. These include breaches of the Working Time Directive and Agenda for Change contracts that try to protect both staff and patients from working conditions that put women and babies, as well as staff welfare, at risk. These include action on chronic understaffing, inadequate investment, and system-wide pressures that make current working patterns unsustainable.  

Launching the Safe Staffing = Safe Care campaign in Parliament on 20 January 2026, the RCM is calling on Government to: 

1. Deliver safe staffing through dedicated, multi-year funding via a national maternity and neonatal action plan to end chronic understaffing in hospital and community settings. 
2. Protect a learning profession by providing midwives and maternity support workers with 52 hours of protected, salaried time to supervise students and complete essential continuing professional development. 
3. Amplify midwives’ voices by mandating a Director of Midwifery in every Trust and ensuring sufficient consultant midwives are in post as a non-negotiable standard. 
4. Improve health and prevention by funding protected time for midwives and MSWs to develop cultural competence and deliver safe, equitable care for every mother and birthing person. 
5. Invest in workplaces and birthplaces by prioritising poor maternity estates for urgent improvement through ring-fenced capital funding.