Dutch midwives’ views on and experiences with woman-centred care — A Q-methodology study

Fontein-Kuipers, Yvonne; de Groot, Rosa; van Beeck, Elise; van Hooft, Susanne; van Staa, AnneLoes

Abstract

Background: Woman-centred care is a philosophy for midwifery care management of the childbearing woman. There is no mutually recognised internalised way in midwifery to provide woman-centred care.

Objective: To reveal midwives’ distinct perspectives about woman-centred care.

Methods: A Q-methodology study amongst 48 Dutch community-based midwives who rank-ordered 39 statements on woman-centred care, followed by semi-structured interviews to motivate their
ranking. By-person factor analysis was used to derive latent views, representing midwives (factors) with similar attitudes towards woman-centred care. The qualitative data was used to aid interpretation of the factors.

Results: Four distinct factors emerged: (1) the humane midwife, containing two twinning factors: (1+) The philosophical midwife, who is the woman’s companion during childbearing in being an authentic
individual human being; (1-) the human-rights midwife, who is the woman’s advocate for achieving autonomy and self-determination regarding care during the childbearing period. (2) The quality-of-care
midwife, who regards good perinatal health outcomes, responsive care and positive maternal experiences as benchmarks for the quality of woman-centred care. (3) The job-crafting midwife, who focuses on self-organisation while seeking balance between the childbearing woman, herself as a professional and an individual and as a colleague.

Conclusion/Implications: Each factor represented specific perspectives feeding into woman-centred practice. Although the humane midwife seems to represent the dominant and preferable perspective of woman-centred care, awareness and exploration of and reflection on the thoughts patterns represented by the four different perspectives, should be considered in education and professional development of (student)midwives of be(com)ing a woman-centred midwife.

Citation

Fontein-Kuipers, Y., de Groot, R., van Beeck, E., van Hooft, S., & van Staa, A. (2019). Dutch midwives’ views on and experiences with woman-centred care — A Q-methodology study. Women and Birth, 32(6), e567-e575. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wombi.2019.01.003

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 8, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Jan 24, 2019
• Publication Date: 2019-12
• Deposit Date: Jan 10, 2022
• Journal: Women and Birth
• Print ISSN: 1871-5192
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 32
• Issue: 6
• Pages: e567-e575
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wombi.2019.01.003
• Keywords: Midwifery; Woman-centred care; Q-methodology; Humane; Job-crafting
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/2833267