Demi Theijssen (28) from Veghel is thirty weeks pregnant and hoped to be able to prepare for her birth without any worries. But it now appears that the maternity care she requested can no longer be provided. Due to staff shortages and absenteeism, We Care Geboortezorg in Helmond, the maternity care agency where she was registered, will close its doors as of May 1.
Other maternity care institutions in the area are completely full. And Demi now fears that she will be alone during her maternity week.
We Care is a maternity agency from Helmond that provides maternity care in Brabant and Flevoland. In Brabant they will stop doing this at the end of next month, the organization recently announced in an email to clients: “We are struggling with a lot of absenteeism due to illness and staff turnover. We worked very hard to resolve this issue, but unfortunately we were unable to do so. With pain in our hearts we have to decide to stop in Brabant as of May 1.”
Demi already has a four-year-old daughter with her husband. Because she developed postnatal depression after giving birth, she had a lot of support from her maternity assistant. After waiting four years, Demi and her husband decided last year that they wanted to have a second child.
“I already heard from friends who were pregnant and also from family that they were having difficulty finding maternity care. So I wanted to be there on time,” says Demi. Immediately after her first ultrasound, she was on the phone with maternity care institutions. “One of them actually kind of laughed at me,” she says. “They said that it is customary to call immediately if you get a positive pregnancy test.” Ultimately, she was referred to We Care, where there was room.
A month ago, Demi received an email from the agency that her maternity care hours had been reduced to three hours a day due to crowds. “Fine, as long as they come to check how the baby is doing.” But a little later she received a message that the agency would close completely at the end of April: “They sent me a list of maternity agencies in the area and wished me the best of luck.”
In a panic, Demi called all the agencies in the region, but everything is full. In the Netherlands, every woman who has recently given birth is entitled to at least 24 hours of maternity care. This must be provided by basic health insurance, which is why Demi turned to her health insurance company, FBTO. But he also noted that all affiliated agencies are full.
Demi has now been put on an emergency list. If a family falls out, the insurance company will contact them. This could be in three weeks, but also three days after the baby is born. And so she is at her wits’ end. “The closer I get to giving birth, the more stressed I get. After my previous birth I couldn’t walk for three weeks. If my husband now has to do everything alone, I don’t know if it will turn out well. It’s especially frustrating because I was just on time.”
There were 36 women registered with maternity care organization We Care. The Helmond company says it has placed the majority of those clients with fellow maternity agencies itself. But according to the agency, this has ‘unfortunately’ not been possible for everyone. “We have asked their health insurer if they can do anything for these clients,” says owner Diana Bakker. According to her, about ten women currently have no alternative maternity care.
According to trade organization Bo Geboortezorg, the problems in maternity care are major. Chairman Peter Boudewijn has no figures for the number of women who cannot receive maternity care or maternity care organizations that are in danger of collapsing. “But the Helmond-Eindhoven region is currently one of the biggest bottlenecks in the Netherlands.”
According to Boudewijn, We Care is responsible for finding an alternative for the victims. According to him, the same situation currently exists in Twente: “The clients there are now divided among other maternity care agencies. This does mean that hours are taken away from other women, with a lot of maternity care, to help these families.”
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