Abstract
This paper seeks to deconstruct the place of midwives as professionals using the novel interdisciplinary lens of the Place Model—an innovative analytical device which originated in education and has been previously applied to both teachers and teacher educators. The Place Model allows us to map the metaphorical professional landscape of the midwife and to consider how and where midwives are located in the combined context of two senses of place: in the sociological sense of public esteem and also the humanistic geography tradition of place as a cumulative process of professional learning. A range of exemplars will bring this map to life uncovering both the dystopias and potentially utopian places in which midwives find their various professional places in the world. The Model can be used to help student midwives to consider and take charge of their learning and status trajectories within the profession.
Highlights
Midwives have a wide ranging and uniquely skilled place in caring for women throughout pregnancy and childbirth, and in antenatal and postnatal care; neonatal care; sexual health and fertility services in partnership with women and their families [1]
A position statement by the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) highlights that while midwifery is recognized as an autonomous profession in many countries that it is not yet afforded this status globally [5]
This paper aims to use the Place Model to provide a more realistic and complex map of the profession
Summary
Midwives have a wide ranging and uniquely skilled place in caring for women throughout pregnancy and childbirth, and in antenatal and postnatal care; neonatal care; sexual health and fertility services in partnership with women and their families [1]. The esteem of midwives and their educational trajectories are matters which are both important and contested places It is for this reason, that Clarke’s [2] Place Model, which combines the sociological sense of place as status and the geographical sense of place as a position on a career long learning journey, can provide a useful combined set of lenses with which to view this unique profession. The ICM advocates for all countries to support midwives to promote midwifery as an autonomous profession, in order to optimize the care that they can provide for women and their families. The Place Model is a map with a purpose It is proffered as an interdisciplinary thinking tool for two key user groups: student professionals and their tutors. This paper will examine the place of the midwife from the perspective of their expertise and professional learning and that of the place within public esteem, focusing mostly on the UK and drawing on some key contrasting and comparable international examples
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