One-to-one support by a midwife
What can women who want to give birth in the clinic expect in terms of one-to-one support?
"Women should receive one-to-one care from a midwife from the active opening stage during childbirth" (4.1)(16)
What is one-to-one care? “Midwifery, non-medical care activities, as well as emotional support and provision of information and advocacy for the woman during the active opening and exit phases by the same midwife, taking into account existing work schedules.
Care by the same midwife should be as continuous as possible according to the woman's needs." (4.1)
What can women who want to give birth in the clinic expect in terms of one-to-one support?
Physician-led delivery room: due to staff shortages, midwives must care for multiple birthing women simultaneously. The guideline recognizes one-to-one support as a goal. It remains to be seen how physicians and midwives, as well as hospitals and policy (staffing ratios), will implement the goal. Get informed.
Foto: Pixabay free
Midwives delivery room: With prior registration and sufficient staff, one-to-one care with a midwife is the goal. Midwivery delivery rooms are located in the vicinity of delivery rooms managed by a doctor. They also usually work in shifts, so that a change of midwife during the birth can be expected, depending on the duration of the birth. In many cases, even this model does not guarantee one-to-one support.
Midwife-attended birth: At present, the continuous one-to-one care of the woman with a midwife she trusts, as defined in the NICE guideline (11), can only be ensured in hospitals in the case of midwife-attended births.
(16) These numbers refer to the location in the abbreviated version of the guideline "Vaginal Birth at Term".