The government’s support party, the Unity List, will find DKK 300 million to improve the country’s maternity wards.
This is what political rapporteur Mai Villadsen (EL) says before the negotiations in the area begin on Wednesday. The money must be found no later than the Finance Act.
– The money must ensure that we can hire more midwives and give concrete rights to mothers and parents.
– It applies to birth preparation that there is actually a midwife present during the birth, and that there is room to stay afterwards in the delivery room, says Villadsen.
– The rights must ensure that no corners are cut around on any food corridors. And that it is not only something we talk about for a short period of time, but forget again.
– We have to find the money, because otherwise we risk that it is taken from the remaining healthcare system, says Villadsen.
Since the turn of the year, a number of media, including Femina and DR, have focused on the conditions in the country’s maternity wards.
Critical processes have been described. Among other things, it has focused on the conditions in the Capital Region’s maternity wards.
This applies, for example, to stories of acute caesarean sections, because problems were not detected in time due to busyness.
At a consultation on the subject back in March, Health Minister Magnus Heunicke (S) stated that “the birth area deserves to be given very high priority, also higher than it has been so far”.
According to Villadsen, many demands are made on midwives. The busyness among them means that more people have to be hired. The money in particular must go to that.
– The busyness is not solely due to bureaucracy or demands from above. This is because there are many complicated births nowadays and the midwives are very few when they are on duty.
– Therefore, we must ensure that they get better conditions and that there are rights for the individual mother, so that we do not again experience that people are sent by taxi from one hospital to another during the birth.
– Or that new parents are sent to the streets, just a few hours after having been through something as life-changing as having a child, Villadsen says.
At another support party SF, health spokesperson Kirsten Normann Andersen says that she looks forward to the National Board of Health making recommendations for the birth area.
The party itself estimates that 150 million kroner is needed to improve conditions.
– The important thing is that we get some minimum rights for mothers. For us, it is important that we ensure rights for the two days where you can stay in the maternity ward after the birth, and that you get some preparations that seriously take care of the mothers in some small teams, says the SF.
The opposition party Venstre also makes similar demands.
Among the requirements are a right to have the same midwife from start to finish, home visits by a midwife and health nurse that the parents know, as well as birth preparation in small groups. This also applies to free choice between public and private.
Source: The Nordic Page