Abstract
BackgroundMidwives face direct and indirect barriers in their workplaces that have negative consequences on their ability to provide quality care to women and neonates, however, they still carry on with their duties. This study aimed at investigating the coping strategies that Ghanaian midwives adopt to be able to complete their work.MethodsGlaserian Grounded theory was used in this study. Data were collected through non-participant observations and semi-structured interviews. The study participants included 29 midwives who worked in labour/birthing environments and a pharmacist, a social worker, a national Health Insurance Scheme manager and a health services manager.FindingsThe midwives’ motivation due to their strong desire to save the lives of women and neonates and their strong affection for the midwifery profession was identified to help them cope with the barriers that they faced in their workplaces. The midwives’ motivation was found to spur actions such as improvising, taking control of the birthing process and the birthing environment and the maintenance of social and professional networks to help them to complete their duties.ConclusionGhanaian midwives face myriad barriers in their workplaces; however, they are able to adopt coping strategies that enable them to complete their duties. The provision of care resources for maternity services in the country will reduce the barriers that the midwives face and improve the quality of maternal and neonatal care. In the short term however, pre and post midwifery educational programmes should focus on developing resilience in the midwifery workforce to help midwives cope more effectively with the challenges that they face in their workplaces.
Highlights
Midwives face direct and indirect barriers in their workplaces that have negative consequences on their ability to provide quality care to women and neonates, they still carry on with their duties
The provision of care resources for maternity services in the country will reduce the barriers that the midwives face and improve the quality of maternal and neonatal care
In the short term pre and post midwifery educational programmes should focus on developing resilience in the midwifery workforce to help midwives cope more effectively with the challenges that they face in their workplaces
Summary
Midwives face direct and indirect barriers in their workplaces that have negative consequences on their ability to provide quality care to women and neonates, they still carry on with their duties. Socioeconomic consequences to barriers to midwifery work include pressure on their marriages as well as on their social networks, inadequate salaries, and other financial effects that result from providing care to women and neonates from low and irregular income [7, 17]. All these consequences lead midwives to disengage emotionally from their work, which has a direct impact on outcomes for women and neonates [5]. The consequences of the barriers to the ability of midwives to provide quality care have been found to result in burnout and moral distress which can have negative effects on their retention [5, 7, 18]
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