What is a midwife?

Midwives provide women and their families with information to enable informed decision making where the woman remains in control of her care. Midwives are skilled in clinical care and can gain information about the woman and her baby’s health and wellbeing by using various methods from hands-on palpation and measurement to quiet observation to interpreting diagnostic tests and pathology.  Midwives are also skilled in providing care during emergency situations.

Midwives view pregnancy and birth as essentially family-centred, social and normal and physiological processes to be supported and only interfered with when necessary.  The World Health Organisation recognises midwives as the “most appropriate primary health care provider to be assigned to the care of normal birth” (WHO 1996).

The International Confederation of Midwives’ Definition of a Midwife states:

“The midwife is recognised as a responsible and accountable professional who works in partnership with women to give the necessary support, care and advice during pregnancy, labour and the postpartum period, to conduct births on the midwife’s own responsibility and to provide care for the newborn and the infant. This care includes preventative measures, the promotion of normal birth, the detection of complications in mother and child, the accessing of medical care or other appropriate assistance and the carrying out of emergency measures…. A midwife may practise in any setting including the home, community, hospitals, clinics or health units.” (ICM 2005)

 

The benefits for women and babies of one-to-one care with a known midwife include:

• less intervention in labour and birth

• less need for pain relief during labour and birth

• higher likelihood of a normal birth

• higher likelihood of breastfeeding success

(Hatem, Sandall, Devane, Soltani & Gates 2009)