“I like to work a lot, but above all I like to work well, precise, weary, Camille Dumortier-Clermont. Leaving with this feeling of having flown over a lot of things hurts me a lot. »
Camille is a midwife and had to stop to avoid abuse. "I love my job, but the better it gets, the more it weighs on me," she says. A widely shared observation in the profession: for several years now, hospital structures have failed to stop the bleeding of midwifery professionals.
The National Council of the Order of Midwives warned, on October 13, 2022, of this unprecedented shortage of midwives: the number of radiations of professionals of working age exploded (112% during the first half of 2022 !). “This phenomenon contributes to further degrading the quality and safety of care but also the conditions of practice, thus leading midwives and students to flee the profession. This also leads to the closure of maternity services.
This vicious circle is the subject of Carine Lefebvre-Quennell's documentary. She followed, without narration, the daily life of six level III maternity midwives - that is to say, having all the equipment and personnel necessary to deal with all emergency situations - of the CHRU from Nancy.
" The best job in the world "
The director has chosen to immerse herself a dozen times in twelve-hour shifts to restore reality, without taboos but also without the tenacious images of Epinal which embellish the profession a little too quickly, in particular those of a "vocation for "the most beautiful job in the world". Clichés that overshadow a demand for salary and professional recognition that midwives have been carrying for several years – they took to the streets six times in 2021.
Depending on the management of pregnancies, vaginal and caesarean deliveries, postpartum management, first aid given to newborns, or abortions, the film unfolds, following the disjointed rhythm of activity, all the technicality of a job whose physical and moral arduousness is little (re) known.
In the context of a hospital everywhere out of breath, the documentary also shows the crushing responsibilities that weigh on midwives while the heart of their profession - the relationship and the accompaniment of patients in one of the most significant moments of their lives – is gradually disappearing.
Working conditions "on the line", resulting loss of meaning... "I tell myself that I will not do this until I am 60", admits Sandrine Allix, exhausted from "jumping from box to box". The overflow expressed by these professionals reveals a form of mistreatment of women – caregivers but also parturients. "As soon as it comes to care, we quickly enter feminine environments, whether in a crèche, at the nursing home or here at the maternity ward," explains the director.
