Doing midwifery between different belief systems.
Childbirth has been increasingly concentrated in large centralised hospitals, with a parallel trend toward more birth interventions in Norway. These changes have resulted in new ways of framing birth from: a normal woman's life experience to a medical event. Caring for the birthing mother in a modern centralised ward, take place between two different belief- systems: a biomedical and a phenomenological. A phenomenological account of seven midwives' descriptions of skilled midwifery in a Norwegian high-technology labour ward was carried out. The focus was on how skilled midwives experience their daily work between a biomedical and a phenomenological belief system. Three themes were identified: (1) sensing where the woman is in labour, (2) being available for but not overbearing to the women and (3) being in a room of struggle. The findings are discussed from the perspective of being between these two belief-systems, with special focus on wise midwifery judgement as a way of managing the struggle.
Blaaka
Gunnhild
G
Department of Clinical Medicine, Section of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Bergen University, Norway. gunnhild.blaaka@kk.uib.no
Schauer Eri
Tine
T
D003696:Delivery Rooms; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008880:Midwifery / Q000379:methods*; D009664:Norway; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D010687:Philosophy, Nursing; D011247:Pregnancy