Can maternity care move beyond risk? Implications for midwifery as a profession.

Healy, Sandra; Humphreys, Eileen; Kennedy, Catriona

Abstract

Maternal and infant mortality rates are reassuringly low in developed countries. Despite this, birth is increasingly seen as risky by women, health professionals and society in general. In wider society, women are subjected to a litany of risks regarding birth, including sensationalising negative incidents by the media. Within maternity care, both structural and operational factors contribute to heightened risk perceptions. Women are processed through a system where risk-management strategies can take precedence over individualised care as health professionals attempt to protect themselves from implication in adverse outcomes and litigation. This results in increasingly interventionist care, depriving women of psychosocial safety in the birth process. Midwifery, as a profession promoting trust in normal birth, is threatened by this dominant medical model of maternity care and interventionist birth practices. Midwives need to act to reclaim their role in promoting normal birth, while balancing considerations of risk with the principle of woman-centred care.

Citation

HEALY, S., HUMPHREYS, E. and KENNEDY, C. 2016. Can maternity care move beyond risk? Implications for midwifery as a profession. British journal of midwifery [online], 24(3), pages 203-209. Available from: https://doi.org/10.12968/bjom.2016.24.3.203

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 3, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Mar 3, 2016
• Publication Date: Mar 31, 2016
• Deposit Date: Sep 16, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 16, 2016
• Journal: British Journal of Midwifery
• Print ISSN: 0969-4900
• Electronic ISSN: 2052-4307
• Publisher: Mark Allen Healthcare
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 24
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 203-209
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.12968/bjom.2016.24.3.203
• Keywords: Risk; Childbirth; Midwives; Women; Intervention
• Public URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10059/1729