The popular model in maternity care, Caseload Midwifery, which assumes that every woman should have the same midwife throughout the entire care chain, has existed at Karolinska in Huddinge in Stockholm since 2019 and has inspired maternity care in other parts of Sweden.
But now the business at Karolinska is threatened due to what are described as unreasonable working conditions.
– Now the standby time will be in addition to the scheduled full-time. In principle, there are six hours of scheduled overtime per week and the midwife who will then need to be taken as time off, but we don’t see that possibility exists, says midwife Karin Johansson.
The midwives have written a joint letter to Karolinska’s management, which is supported by the union. But the employer does not plan to meet their demands:
– This is so that we can run the business so that the pregnant women are guaranteed availability. You must always listen to the criticism and we have a dialogue, not least with the trade unions, about the collective agreements. We have a schedule that will work for everyone who works with us, says Heidi Stensmyren, theme manager at Women’s Health Karolinska University Hospital.
In the player above: Interview with midwife Karin Johansson and theme manager Heidi Stensmyren at Karolinska University Hospital.