Elmhurst midwives to rally for fair wages

Midwives at NYC Health and Hospitals Elmhurst are calling for better working conditions. Photo via Wikimedia Commons/ Tdorante10

By Rachel Vick

After working non-stop in the epicenter throughout the pandemic, midwives at Elmhurst Hospital are rallying Wednesday morning to call for better working conditions.

They say that because of low pay and the amount of overtime needed to compensate for inadequate staffing, they cannot hire or retain new hires.

“Before I was an Elmhurst midwife, I was an Elmhurst nurse. I love this hospital, this community and these patients. It has been my greatest honor to work here for the past ten years, but things are different now,” said Keeley McNamara, CNM. “We are drowning.”

McNamara said that there are seven midwives doing the work of 15 and that their overtime pay is less than their hourly pay.

“Mount Sinai needs to prioritize the families of this community by prioritizing the midwives who care for them,” she said. “We feel profoundly disrespected and worried about the future of our practice. It’s not right.”

The midwives at Elmhurst tackle a range of duties including seeing each pregnant patient who comes to the hospital, gynecological clinic care, staff the labor and delivery floor, and work with midwifery, medical students and OB/GYN residents.

They have had their contracts renewed every two years and one raise in the last 10 years.

Margaret Re, CNM, Chief Midwife, has been at Elmhurst for more than two decades and said that because of the workload and bare bones staffing, she can’t take time off without burdening her coworkers. After contracting COVID-19, she returned to work as soon as she was cleared.

“I love this job and consider it an honor to work with this diverse community,” Re said. “The commitment of my fellow midwives during the height of the pandemic was extraordinary.”

“The overtime expected of us is very hard,” she added. “I have personally done 16 to 24 hours each week since the beginning of the pandemic and for less pay than my base salary. Now we are faced with an intransigent management unwilling to make a fair deal.”