BACKGROUND Most midwives in the Netherlands work in primary care where they are the lead professionals providing care to women with 'normal' or uncomplicated pregnancies, while some midwives work in hospitals ("clinical midwives"). The actual involvement of midwives in maternity care in hospitals is unknown, because in all statistics births in secondary care are registered as births assisted by...

BACKGROUND The occurrence of obstetric anal sphincter injuries (OASIS) has increased in most high-income countries during the past twenty years. The consequences of these injuries can be devastating for women and have an impact on their daily life and quality of health. The aim of this study was to obtain a deeper understanding of midwives' lived experiences of attending a birth in which the wo...

BACKGROUND Excess gestational weight gain (GWG) can affect the immediate and long term health outcomes of mother and infant. Understanding health providers' views, attitudes and practices around GWG is crucial to assist in the development of practical, time efficient and cost effective ways of supporting health providers to promote healthy GWGs. This study aimed to explore midwives' views, atti...

INTRODUCTION the use of water immersion for labour and birth has been shown to be beneficial for women in normal labour (Cluett et al, 2009). It was decided to use problem solving coordinator workshops to change in the way waterbirth practice was promoted and organised on labour ward. Findings from the first Action Research phase (Russell, 2011) led to the development of a waterbirth questionna...

AIMS The aim of the current study was to examine the perception of pain by labouring women and their attendant midwife, from the onset of labour to delivery. RATIONALE Accurate measurement and appropriate management of pain is a significant problem for attendant medical and nursing personnel. Both the experience and perception of pain are regarded as subjective and are therefore difficult to ...

BACKGROUND Patient safety has been a priority for many societies and health care systems in the last decades. Identification of preventable risks and aversion of potentially unsafe situations and fatal complications in maternity units is life saving. The explicit need to focus on quality of care underpins the aim of the study to initially evaluate the safety culture and teamwork climate in the ...

BACKGROUND midwives have traditionally had an important role in providing public health messages to women. The range and diversity of the public health remit within maternity services has expanded rapidly over the past decade and maternity support workers as well as midwives are now engaged in public health work in many areas. Given these changes a review of current practice was indicated. OB...

OBJECTIVES The re-emergence of community-based health workers such as the auxiliary midwives (AMWs) in Myanmar, who are local female volunteers, has been an important strategy to address global health workforce shortages. The Myanmar government recommends one AMW for every village. The aim of this study is to investigate the current knowledge of critical danger signs and practices for safe chil...