One-to-one midwifery practice part 1: setting the scene

Abstract

Although proposing attractive women-centred services, the recommendations of Changing Childbirth (Department of Health, 1993) have been criticised for ignoring the needs of midwives who would staff them. Continuity of carer schemes place higher demands on midwives to be available for women; many doubted if they would be prepared or able to work this way. This is the first in a series of four articles reporting on a study of individual case load midwifery practice within an urban maternity service. The findings suggest that this model attracted midwives who, frustrated and disillusioned with conventional styles of practice, might otherwise have left the profession. After having mastered an initial ‘steep learning curve’, the midwives relaxed and reported immense satisfaction from working this way. They considered they were finally working as ‘real midwives’. In this paper we define the model of practice and study details, ‘setting the scene’ for the subsequent papers which examine the nature and implications of individual case load midwifery for practitioners.