Midwifery in Abu Dhabi: A descriptive survey of midwives

Midwives of international standards may save lives on a scale unmatched by any other intervention. There are limited trained midwives in Abu Dhabi. Midwifery may be eroded or diminished if there is attrition and/ or no succession of trained midwives (Bharj et al., 2016). Therefore, high quality midw...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Women and birth : journal of the Australian College of Midwives 2023-07, Vol.36 (4), p.e439-e444
Main Authors: O’Connell, Maeve Anne, Sosa, Georgina
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Midwife
Midwifery
Midwifery Education
Workforce
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Midwives of international standards may save lives on a scale unmatched by any other intervention. There are limited trained midwives in Abu Dhabi. Midwifery may be eroded or diminished if there is attrition and/ or no succession of trained midwives (Bharj et al., 2016). Therefore, high quality midwifery education is needed. This study aimed to describe midwifery in Abu Dhabi to inform the development of a new midwifery education degree program. In 2022, midwives working in Abu Dhabi were invited to an anonymous online questionnaire. Data collected included characteristics such as age, qualification, duration of practice, practice setting, and skills used. Excel was used to perform descriptive statistics. Seventeen midwives participated (N = 17). The majority (58.8%, n = 10) work in Labour Ward, four midwives rotated to antenatal, labour, and postnatal areas (23.5%, n = 4). Midwives came from many countries, but there were no midwives of Emirati nationality. Seventy per cent held Undergraduate (70.5%, n = 12) and almost a third held Postgraduate (29.5%, n = 5) midwifery degrees. Skills commonly used included parentcraft (47.0%, n = 8), promoting physiologic labour and birth encouraging freedom of movement (93.8%, n = 15), facilitating safe spontaneous vaginal births (88.2%, n = 15), perineal and vaginal suturing (68.8%, n = 11) and immediate care of the newborn (100.0%, n = 17). Midwives less commonly led antenatal assessments (37.5%, n = 6) and worked in postnatal areas (31.3%, n = 4). Understanding midwives' characteristics, where they work, and skills used may inform Midwifery education. Having more midwives will strengthen midwifery and increase women’s choice for respectful, safe maternity care.
ISSN:1871-5192
1878-1799
DOI:10.1016/j.wombi.2023.02.002