Griffith midwife said maternity practice made her fear for her registration

In a submission to the NSW inquiry into birthing trauma, the midwife - whose name is suppressed - said she and other midwives raised the issue with senior staff a number of times while she worked in Griffith on a short contract.

"I felt it was so unsafe that I genuinely feared for my registration and was counting down the shifts on my contract until I could get out," she said.

"There were often situations where there were no midwives allocated for labour ward.

"I distinctly remember her telling me that they would not increase staffing or do anything until a death occurred, to which I replied that a death was going to be inevitable given the circumstances."

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The inquiry was prompted by dozens of complaints lodged by the Maternity Consumer Network about birthing trauma experienced at Wagga Base Hospital.

The inquiry has received an "unprecedented" number of submissions with more than 4000 responses received. Most of these have come from individuals, primarily from individual women who have been traumatised by their experience giving birth.

The Griffith midwife is one of few publicly available submissions that comes from a healthcare worker. It paints a grim picture of practices and attitudes at the hospital in 2017.

It shows the horror stories emerging from hospitals around the state are traumatising workers, as well as patients.

"Unfortunately, the labour ward felt like it had a bit of a school yard mentality and there was an us against them attitude. The health professionals against the rouge and dangerous parents," she said.

"Despite my family residing in NSW, I have never worked in NSW again after this experience. The attitude of senior management at the time gave me the perspective that this was not isolated to the hospital but a statewide perspective to save money and I personally left feeling like it was the most unsafe state for both women and midwives.

"I have since worked in over 15 hospitals in 5 states and my experience with NSW Health contributed to my own vicarious birth trauma, through what others had endured that I wouldn't want done to myself."

The submission details allegations of staff not properly trained on after birth care, new mothers and babies being left unattended for long periods of time, and staff deliberately inflicting pain on women in labour as a bullying tactic.

"Vulnerable postnatal women were also often unattended and left alone in tears, recovering from caesareans and unable to breastfeed," she said.

"Women who declined active management only to unnecessarily receive the highest doses of medicine at the first sign of excessive bleeding. This again seemed to be another bullying tactic done with staff contributing to the bleeding by pulling on the cord to try remove the placenta and to show the women how silly it was to decline in the first place.

"I was shocked to find one of the women in my care had not fed her baby all night, she was in tears and angry. She had rung the bell and it had been left unanswered. Nobody attended to her the entire time I was called to the birthing woman. Her baby was starving, and she was laying in soiled sheets because she was immobile from a caesarean section.

"I felt so heartbroken for her and felt like I too had failed. I didn't want to come back the next night, but I knew if I didn't, they wouldn't replace me, 'there's no staff' would be an acceptable excuse to leave these women alone without any help."

NSW Health say they will cooperate with the inquiry, and have already consulted with more than 18,000 people for its blueprint for maternity care.

"NSW Health heard through this extensive consultation how pivotal it is for all women, their babies and families to receive culturally respectful, evidence-based and equitable maternity care that improves their experiences, health and wellbeing outcomes," a spokesperson said.

"This commitment is outlined in the Blueprint, and NSW Health will work to strengthen and improve maternity care to ensure all women in NSW receive this high standard of care no matter where they live."

Law firm Slater and Gordon will visit Wagga in September to consult with women who believe they have experienced birth trauma.

Wagga's scheduled hearing for the birthing trauma inquiry has been delayed, due to an "unprecedented" number of submissions.

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