Responding to coverage in the Sunday Times about the suggestion that routes into midwifery education should be changed to make nursing education mandatory before starting midwifery, Fiona Gibb, Director of Midwifery at the Royal College of Midwives, said: 

“Midwifery is a distinct and highly skilled profession which is essential to the safety of women and babies. 

“The UK has some of the strongest midwifery education standards anywhere; what’s missing is the investment to deliver them, not replacing them. There are issues in midwifery education that we highlighted in our report, the State of Midwifery Education – educators are overstretched, there are fewer lecturers with post-graduate qualifications and less funding for courses.  

“In addition, the staffing crisis in maternity means that midwives are often too stretched to give students and newly qualified midwives the time and support they need to develop.  

“There is no evidence that nurse-first education would address any of these problems or provide midwives with a better grounding for their work. In fact, requiring midwives to train first as nurses would exacerbate these issues. 

“Many excellent midwives come into the profession having completed nurse education first, and they are hugely valued — that route exists today and always should. If we are serious about safety, we need more routes into midwifery, not fewer: strong direct entry, registered nurses from across the disciplines — adult, mental health, learning disability, children’s — degree apprenticeships, and an open mind about others who bring relevant skills. Every route should lead to the same rigorous midwifery registration: many doors in, one high standard out. Widening the routes in is also one of the clearest ways to build a workforce that better reflects the women and families we care for. 

“It’s staffing, retention and properly funded education and preceptorship that is the issue, and a longer, costlier route into the profession would just make our staffing crisis worse. 

“We want to see investment in midwifery education — protected time to teach and to learn, enough lecturers, high-quality placements, and consistent preceptorship for new midwives.”