The Continuity Of Midwifery Care

Being a midwife does not only defined by assisting women in childbirth. The general dictionary definition are the misconception of how people view midwives. Being a midwife means to be ‘with women’ and this leads the construction of the midwifery philosophy, Page (2006) 5 steps and Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) competency standards, in order to provide the best women centred care (Australia Collage of Midwives, 2017). This essay will cover a constructive overview of what Page (2006) 5 steps of being a midwife means, it will also defined what women centred care is and emphasis on the importance it has for the woman. Understanding Page (2006) 5 steps and women centred care helped build the pathway for midwifery philosophy to correlate with NMBA competency standard in order to support midwifery practice. For

The Australian College of Midwives believes that it is the right of every pregnant woman to have access to continuity of care by a known midwife for her pregnancy, labour and early postnatal period. Midwives are the most appropriate primary care providers for healthy mothers and newborn babies and are able to refer to specialist medical care if the need arises (Hicks, Spurgeon & Barwell, 2003). Midwives must work within the competency standards enforced by The ANMC Australian Nursing & Midwifery Council (2006) in order to obtain and practice as a registered midwife in Australia. Competency 4 states Midwives should “promote safe and effective practice” (ANMC, 2006), this is achievable by providing Midwifery continuity of care to women and

I believe as a Midwifery Student at Australian Catholic University (ACU) that childbirth is a natural life process. Within my philosophy, my aim is to provide a women-centred care based on evidence- based practice. Also the importance of supporting women with cultural variation, social circumstance and understanding other specific needs throughout the woman’s pregnancy. The women-centred care is an essential quality to a midwife as it ensure that the women is educated in healthy lifestyle choices within pregnancy, childbirth and during parenthood. This relationship of “women-centred care” is the key to midwifery practices as Australian College of Midwives (2009) refers to the philosophy of maternity care that promotes a holistic approach by recognising each women’s social, emotional, physical, spiritual and cultural needs. In retrospect, it is important to reflect on your past experiences during your midwifery practice but also your life beyond midwifery.

This essay demonstrates significant factors, a midwife and the women may face within Australian public hospitals. As a midwife the key skills are understanding of what supports and impacts the normal physiological process of labour and birth. This essay will discuss two influencing factors that have a negative effect on the normal progress of labour and birth. This will be seen, firstly by discussing the cultural and environmental impacts of labour and birth. Then, examining how the midwife may best support and facilitate the adverse effects of normal physiological process. This essay also discusses a positive labour and birth environment within the Australian standard model of care.

For this assignment I am going to choose two different job roles and investigate the health care sector. The job roles I have chosen are midwifery and mental health worker. For each job role I am going to explain the following requirements:

Two parallel health care systems exist: a publicly funded health care accessible to all women within Australia; and private maternity care for those who can afford private health insurance. Within these two models of care systems are further

This report will evaluate the roles and responsibilities of a midwife. “Midwifery encompasses care of women during pregnancy, labour, and the postpartum period, as well as care of the new-born.”(WHO, 2015) This is a recent definition and clearly points out that a midwife has many roles and responsibilities. The NMC Codes of Conduct will be evaluated with specific emphasis on recent changes within healthcare. These changes took place as a result of the tragedies at Mid-Staffordshire Hospital in 2005-2009 and are the outcome of the Francis report in order to improve care given to patients.

Public health is defined by the World Health Organisation as ‘all organised measures to prevent disease, promote health, and prolong life among the population as a whole’ (WHO, 2015). Within this role of public health, the midwife has an essential role. They are in the best position to be able to guide

A constructive critique of the research into women’s experiences of becoming a mother after prolonged labour.

This essay will be relating to an episode of care that was provided to a woman, her partner and their baby on day five during the postnatal period. It will examine the role of the midwife in relation to breastfeeding and how this was not achieved in the case study which is shown in the appendix. Throughout the essay it will look at the following outcomes: the role and responsibility of the midwife within current maternity care provision, the importance of sensitive midwifery, key legal and ethical dimensions of the midwife's role and key sociological and psychological agendas impacting on current maternity care.

Using a case study which was highlighted in a report presented by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (2011), I will be identifying and reflecting on issues raised in the complaint concerning the quality of care for elderly people given by the NHS. Throughout this assignment, I will be using a wide variety of research sources in order to evaluate my own personal and professional developments in accordance to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) Code (2015). The NMC sets out professional standards and guidelines that nurses and midwives should adhere to in order to practice and maintain a high quality of care to patients. Within this assignment, I will be using Bortons’ (1970) framework as a structure to my reflection on issues identified in the case study. This useful reflective model consists of three main components; ‘What’, ‘So what’ and finally ‘Now what’. Bortons’ model is highly recommended by Jasper (2003) as a useful model, particularly for student nurses, as it allows beginner practitioners to reflect on their practice in an analytical manner. In order to protect the identity of the patient’s case in which I will be utilising, for the purposes of this assignment the patient will be referred to as Mrs H.

During my journey, I worked with qualified midwives observing deliveries in natural births and caesareans sections. It also helped me to understand the different roles in postnatal and antenatal clinics. This life experience has given me crucial skills of teamwork, observation skills and working with the client's family. I also volunteered in a mother and baby unit in Birmingham by working with women who have suffered from postpartum psychosis. This helped me to understand some of the complications of postpartum and the ways of assisting the woman. It has also aided me to enhance my interpersonal skills and how to promote respect and dignity. From this, I was able to link theory to practice in this case to my equality, diversity and rights module in health and social care. This has facilitated me to understand more about supporting vulnerable women and their families. Moreover, studying anatomy and physiology has also prepared me to gain significant knowledge on childbirth and different changes that women go through during pregnancy, which will be beneficial in studying

This essay will discuss about the medical dominance, how power and hierarchy have influence on both patient and medical professionals in the Australian health care system, especially in the field of midwifery. The general concepts of power and the hierarchy in health care setting and how it has closely interwoven with the health sociology would be investigated throughout the essay. The social determinants of health in terms of social justice and equality, moreover, are significant factors in accessing appropriate health service and achieving better health outcome with the patient. It would also utilise the conflict theory to illustrate historical, structural, cultural and critical factors on supporting the power structure, agencies related

Woman-centred care requires a holistic approach and should encompass all a woman’s expectations from an emotional, physical, spiritual and cultural perspective (Fahy K 2012 & Australian College of Midwives (ACM) 2016). I believe that woman-centred care is of utmost importance in all aspects of midwifery care, and I am sure that many others in the profession would share my opinion. Simple principals of woman-centred care include but are not limited to: collaborative care between health professionals, continuity of care provider, care focused on the woman’s needs and expectations before those of the institution or health professionals and ensures the woman’s autonomy and ability to make informed decisions is supported and respected (Fahy K 2012 & ACM 2016). Unfortunately in some situations, woman-centred care is not always successfully implemented. A common example is when there is an indication for Electronic Fetal Monitoring (EFM), particularly in the intrapartum period

This model identifies midwifery partnership as a relationship of ‘sharing’ between the women and the midwife, involving trust, shared control and responsibility and shared meaning through mutual understanding. It is the sharing relationship which constitutes midwifery and it is one which spans the life experience of pregnancy and childbirth. (Guilliland, K., & Pairman, S, 2010, p. 7).