OBJECTIVE to explore, in-depth, the views of midwives working in maternity services about birth setting, models of care and philosophy of care. DESIGN an Appreciative Inquiry approach was adopted utilising focus group interviews as the method of data collection. SETTING 15 focus group interviews were conducted at 14 sites in England. PARTICIPANTS a purposive sample of 120 midwives and six...

BACKGROUND Although surveys have identified that women are generally highly satisfied with maternity care provision, those aspects of care that women highlight as most important for achieving satisfaction and a satisfactory maternity care experience have not been reported. The aim of this study was to investigate how women understand and experience their maternity care and to report which aspec...

Introduction Citizens for Midwifery, a consumer-based organization focusing on maternity care with a deep commitment to practical, health-improving changes in our health care system, is especially aware of the fundamental role of maternity care in the long-term health of mothers, babies and families. We present specific and practical suggestions below. We would like to see the Obama-Biden admin...

conclusions iraqi nurses identified factors such as limited health resources, lack of job description, and professional unaccountability as major safety issues in maternity services. these findings alarm the need to ensure the provision of females and neonates with appropriate care. this, however, would require coordination between iraqi kurdistan health authorities to provide midwifery care fa...

Addressing cultural factors that affect uptake of skilled maternity care is recognized as an important step in improving maternal and newborn health. This article describes a systematic review to examine the evidence available on the effects of interventions to provide culturally appropriate maternity care on the use of skilled maternity care during pregnancy, for birth or in the postpartum per...

INTRODUCTION In the Finnish primary health care, relational continuity of care is implemented in integrated maternity and child health clinics where the same nurse takes care of the family from the pregnancy until the child reaches school age. The aim of this study was to clarify the association between this relational continuity of care and the availability, utilisation and selected features o...

There has been a precipitous decline in the number of rural communities across Canada providing local maternity care. The evidence suggests that the outcome for newborns may be worse as a result. There is also an emerging understanding of the significant physiological and psychosocial consequences for rural parturient women. Because they cannot plan for birth with any certainty, many of them ex...

Effective collaboration between professional groups is increasingly seen as an essential element in good quality and safe health care. This is especially important in the context of maternity care, where most women have straightforward labour and birth experiences, but some require rapid transfer between care providers and settings. This article presents current accounts of collaboration--or la...