Election season always brings a flurry of promises and it’s our job at RCM Cymru to go through every manifesto carefully and ask: what does this actually mean for midwives, for maternity support workers and for the women and families they care for every day in Wales?
One of the things that struck me most was how many parties have included perinatal mental health in their manifestos. This is something RCM Cymru has been pushing for consistently and it matters enormously to the members I speak to across Wales.
Welsh Labour have pledged to invest in community-based mental health support for new mothers and mothers-to-be. That word – community – is important. We know that support needs to be close to home and easy to reach, not just available in theory. We will be pressing for detail on how this translates into funded services on the ground.
Plaid Cymru have included a commitment to equal access to perinatal mental health and parent-infant services right across Wales. At the RCM we have long said that no woman should receive a lesser standard of care because of where she lives. They have also pledged to strengthen the National Bereavement Care Pathway for families affected by baby loss — an area that has long been called for by campaigners and advocacy groups.
The Green Party have set out plans to prioritise the first 1,000 days of life, covering perinatal care, postnatal mental health, breastfeeding support and postpartum care. This aligns closely with what RCM Cymru has been asking for.
As midwives and MSWs we know that no promise on maternity services is worth anything without the staff to deliver it. That is why safe staffing is at the heart of everything we do and it is why we will keep pushing, whoever forms the next government.
The Green Party make an explicit pledge on minimum staffing standards in maternity services.
The Welsh Conservatives promise to retain, recruit and train more midwives alongside other health professionals, with a focus on ending the recruitment crisis and reducing the reliance on expensive agency staff.
Reform has said it intends to conduct a workforce review.
We will be pressing for any workforce changes to be shaped around the Wales Perinatal Workplan – because what we need is the right staff, in the right place, with the right skills and no midwifery services stood down because of workforce gaps.
The Welsh Liberal Democrats point to national clinical leadership as a way to drive care improvements across Wales. Midwifery is not named explicitly, but we will be making the case clearly that it must be central to any national clinical strategy.
Reading through these manifestos, I keep coming back to the same thought: this is what sustained campaigning looks like. The commitments we’re seeing, on perinatal mental health, on staffing and on the value of maternity services, are there because members like you have spoken up, again and again.
But manifestos are promises, not outcomes. Our job now is to hold every elected member to account.
We will be writing to our newly-elected Senedd representatives in the coming weeks and will keep you updated every step of the way. If you have questions, or want to get involved, please do get in touch. I always want to hear from you.
