A parent of a newly qualified midwife has contacted me and says: “I am sick with worry every time I drop her to work. As a family each of us does our best to follow guidelines on hand washing, 6ft distancing, staying at home except for necessary shopping

walking the dog & errands for my cocooning parents. As advised, we treat everyone as though they have the virus. But in this particular maternity hospital, they have only gloves & a flimsy apron while working up close & personal with the clients.

How is this protecting our frontline staff? This week there were two mothers with positive covid19 test results & at least two of my daughter’s year are in isolation (who had no contact with the positive mothers!).
How many others have the virus but are asymptomatic?

If my daughter contracts the virus:
- our family of five are at risk
- my 80year old parents are at risk
- how many of the maternity hospital staff
are affected?
- how many clients?

The hospital is understaffed to begin with!

I want the midwives fully protected!”