Midwives’ experiences of receiving maternity care and predictors of their overall birth experiences.

Background

Limited research has been conducted on midwives’ experiences of receiving maternity care. Midwives may bring a degree of their own personal lives to their work, including their own birthing experience.

Aim

To explore midwives’ experiences of giving birth and receiving maternity care and predictors of overall birth experience.

Participants

Midwives who, after completing their midwifery education, experienced their first birth within the Australian maternity care system, were female, over the age of 18, and fluent in English.

Methods

Data from an online national survey were analysed using descriptive statistics, multiple regression analysis, and Kendall’s tau correlation studies.

Findings

In total, 447 midwives’ responses were included. Overall, 85 % of midwives reported positive birth experiences, 12.5 % a negative or traumatic birth experience, and 2.5 % neither positive nor negative. Five significant predictors of overall birth experience were: having a normal vaginal birth, maternity care providers who instilled a sense of confidence in their professional competence, receiving the maternity care options of their choice, being able to use professional knowledge to question and negotiate with care providers, and having control over their care. Overall, 27.1 % of midwives reported feeling coerced at any one or more points of time. Satisfaction with postnatal care was most strongly correlated with overall birth experience.

Discussion

Midwives appear to experience birth as an overall positive experience, and this could be due to their high level of agency and autonomy in choosing a known and trusted individual care provider; however, knowledge of possible complications could explain high levels of reported coercion. Midwives may need to invest more in getting good postnatal support in place, as this appeared to have the greatest impact on their overall birth experience.