Speaker: Jessica Brumley
Facilitator: Caitlin Goodwin
Midwifery has played a critical role in maternal and newborn care throughout our history, yet its integration into the healthcare system has been marked by challenges and transformation. This presentation explores the historical trajectory of midwifery. The current landscape highlights a growing recognition of midwifery’s benefits, including improved maternal outcomes, reduced interventions, and enhanced patient-centered care. Despite this progress, barriers such as restrictive regulations, inconsistent legislative policies, and disparities in access persist.
Looking ahead, the future of midwifery integration depends on policy reform, interprofessional collaboration, and public awareness to strengthen midwives’ role in addressing the maternal health crisis. A strong professional association is critical in advancing the midwifery agenda and strengthening the profession.
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Speaker: Jessie Johnson-Cash
Facilitator: Mutiara Dien Safitri
Background: Midwifery students juggle academic pressures, personal obligations, and the transition to clinical practice, often leading to burnout and stress. Activities that build resilience are beneficial in facilitating student engagement and promoting emotional wellbeing.
Objectives: This study evaluates the effectiveness of Student Midwife Support Circles (SMSC) as a co-curricular peer support activity, in building a sense of belonging and professional identity, and developing emotional wellbeing.
Methods: Participants were recruited from past and current midwifery students at a regional Australian university. A mixed-method approach used a cross-sectional online survey and individual interviews. Quantitative data (n=31) was reported as descriptives and compared based on attendance at the SMSCs. Qualitative data from both the survey (n=31) and interviews (n=3) was analysed using thematic analysis.
Results: Compared to students (n=9) who had not attended SMSCs, students who attended any number of SMSCs (n=22) reported greater compassion satisfaction and slightly higher self-efficacy. In addition, attendance significantly improved students’ views that support groups reduced stress whilst on placements, improved belonging to the profession and in becoming a better midwife, and increased student well-being. The thematic analysis confirmed these results, and the value of an academic run the support group.
Conclusions: Students who have been to any number of SMSCs have much more favourable views of the usefulness of these groups and there is some improvement in the satisfaction of care they provide and their confidence in dealing with challenges.
Speakers: Seda Serhatlioglu and Tuba Kizilkaya
Facilitator: Farah Sajidah
Abstract:
Health literacy is defined as the ability to access, understand, and use health information to make informed health-related decisions, while health perception refers to individual’s evaluations of their own health status.This study examines the relationship between health literacy and health perception among 353 midwifery students in Turkey, conducted between January 2023 and March 2024. Data were collected using the Student Information Form, Turkey Health Literacy Scale-32 (THLS-32), and Health Perception Scale (HPS). Statistical analyses, including Mann-Whitney U, Spearman’s rho correlation, and Kruskal-Wallis tests, were performed. The results highlight significant correlations between health literacy and health perception, emphasizing the importance of improving health literacy to enhance health perceptions and outcomes among future midwives. The findings show that most participants have adequate health literacy and positive health perception. It was found that factors such as internet usage and the desire to read written materials had significant effects on health literacy and health perception (p 0.05). These findings suggest that increasing the health literacy levels of midwifery students can contribute to better health outcomes in the populations they will serve. The study underscores the importance of targeted health education strategies in midwifery curricula to strengthen both health literacy and health perception.
Speakers: Helen Bedford, Mike Parker and Amy Coates
Facilitator: Elisa Segoni
Our presentation showcases the design and implementation of a dynamic, co-created curriculum which integrates and optimises excellence for midwifery education. The Connected Curriculum (Fung 2017) underpins two distinctive UK midwifery pre-registration programmes (a three year undergraduate [BMidHons] and an integrated 4 year Masters [MMid]), founded on global evidence (Renfrew et al 2014) and meeting rigorous national (Nursing &; Midwifery Council 2019) and global (International Confederation of Midwives 2021) midwifery education standards.
Fung’s (2017) Connected Curriculum is values based. Learning through research and inquiry forms the central core, linked to six dimensions which enable connectivity to midwifery as follows a through line of research activity, supporting students to:
- connect with researchers/institutional research,
- make connections across subjects/out to the world,
- connect academic learning with workplace learning,
- produce outputs (assessments) directed at an audience,
- connect with each other, across phases/ with alumni.
This presentation has relevance and utility for a global audience of clinicians, educators and students within and beyond midwifery. It will also illustrate how an inclusive midwifery curriculum is operating within an institution characterised by:
- Gold/Sustainability recognition of embedding Baby Friendly Standards (UK Unicef BFI 2024)
- nationally rated Gold for teaching excellence (Office for Students 2024)
- high quality research (Research Excellence Framework 2024)
- strategic vision as a university for public good for local, national and international communities (University of York 2024)
The presentation/discussion will feature transferable implementation ideas for impact, showcasing a connected midwifery curriculum which enriches individual/collective student experience for midwifery excellence.
Speaker: Yvonne Meyer
Facilitator: Celine Lemay
Sages-femmes dans certaines publications. C’est le cas pour l’inscription de notre activité professionnelle au patrimoine immatériel UNESCO où, dans l’annonce en français, le mot sage-femme est absent du titre. Comment sont présentées les sages-femmes ailleurs ? Neuf documents ont été repérés qui ont pour titre l’art, les soins, la pratique, les sciences ou la profession de sage-femme. Les résumés de ces documents seront présentés, ainsi que l’analyse réalisée, basée sur les critères de soins centrés sur le patient (Rycroft-Maloine, 2004). Les résultats montrent que toutes ces formulations sont polysémiques et qu’elles n’ont pas exactement la même portée. Par contre, toutes présentent haut et fort les sages-femmes et ce qui les caractérise. Si UNESCO avait titré « Les soins de sage-femme : connaissances, savoir-faire et pratiques », les sages-femmes seraient visibles partout dans le monde francophone.
The theme of the intervention is motivated by a regrettable problem of visibility of midwives in certain publications. This is the case for the inclusion of our professional activity in UNESCO’s intangible heritage list, where, in the French announcement, the word sage-femme is absent from the title. How are midwives presented elsewhere? Nine documents have been identified that deal with the art, care, practice, science or profession of midwifery. Summaries of these documents will be presented, along with the analysis carried out, based on the criteria of patient-centred care (Rycroft-Maloine, 2004). The results show that all these formulations are polysemous and do not have exactly the same scope. However, they all make a strong case for midwives and what characterises them. If UNESCO had published the title « Les soins de sage-femme: connaissances, savoir-faire et pratiques » (‘Midwifery: knowledge, skills and practices’), midwives would be visible throughout the French-speaking world.
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