title: 'You can drop dead': midwives bullying women.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  This paper describes how women experienced what came to be labelled as 'bullying' by a small number of midwives when they were evacuated from their rural and remote areas of NSW, Australia to a maternity unit to birth.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  What is the experience of women who are required to travel away from their NSW rural/remote communities to birth?
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty-two participants together with a number of their partners/support people were interviewed in depth for this qualitative, exploratory study. Upon thematic analysis of the transcribed interviews, an unexpected finding was that four participants (plus one partner) described experiences which were interpreted as bullying, by a small number of midwives working with them. Women identifying as Aboriginal were especially likely to share stories of midwifery bullying.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Emotional and cultural safety of women must be a prime consideration of midwives. Strategies to reverse power differentials between midwives and women are urgently required to eradicate bullying by any midwife.
authors.affiliation: Charles Sturt University, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Wagga Wagga, Australia.
authors.forename: Elaine
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Dietsch
authors.forename: Pamela
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Shackleton
authors.forename: Carmel
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Davies
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: McLeod
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Alston
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel / Q000208:ethnology*; D001294:Attitude to Health / Q000208:ethnology*; D054521:Cultural Competency; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007743:Labor, Obstetric / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D009517:New South Wales; D009721:Nurse Midwives / Q000941:ethics / Q000523:psychology*; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D011181:Postnatal Care / Q000523:psychology; D011209:Power, Psychological; D011247:Pregnancy; D011287:Prejudice; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012424:Rural Population; D012919:Social Behavior; D013240:Stereotyping; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014195:Travel