Midwives’ personalisation of care for black women in labour
Research type
Research Study
Full title
To Explore Midwives Translation of Personalisation of care when making clinical decisions for black women in labour.
IRAS ID
347309
Contact name
Sarah Church
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
London South Bank University
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 11 months, 26 days
Research summary
The purpose of this thesis is to explore how Midwives understand and contextualise personalisation of care within the midwifery philosophy of care when making clinical decisions for Black Women in labour. There is a paucity of literature that provides insight into how Midwives translate the personalisation of care and, more specifically, the personalised factors they consider when making clinical decisions for the Black Woman in labour. In addition, there is a reported disparity and ethnic variation in maternal mortality and morbidity in England, with women of black origin 3 times more likely to die in childbirth or experience a lower quality of health care compared with white women. In response to the continued dynamism of the ethnic population in England, the NHS Long-Term Transformation vision in 2023 is to deliver safer, personalised, and women-centred care with a drive to flatten the inequalities gradient.
This study is therefore being undertaken to understand and explore the factors influencing Midwives’ decision-making when caring for Black Women in labour and how they translate personalisation knowledge into care. Midwives have been selected to participate in this study for their expert knowledge in making clinical decisions and caring for women in labour. Midwives who work on the Labour ward and/or Integrated Birth Centre in particular, as part of their daily episode of care, would make clinical decisions and birth women in labour. As experts in this field, they will generate new knowledge, which will, in turn, inform strategic leaders within the Trust where this research is undertaken and other Midwifery practitioners, especially within the Local Maternity Systems, and will contribute to future research.
From a purposive sample of nine practising Midwives from a maternity NHS Trust, the data that would be required from the Midwives will be collected through observing their clinical decisions of a Black Woman in labour, an hour of semi-structured interviews and reviewing how they use labour ward decision making tools such as the partogram, guidelines and protocol through documentary analysis when the Black Woman is in labour. Conducting this thesis would require individual perceptions, insights, and an understanding of how midwives come to understand, act, and manage their day-to-day decision-making in the labour ward.
Therefore, an interpretivist, qualitative-dominant paradigm would be utilised through the lens of critical ethnographic methodology, which would illuminate and provide an in-depth understanding of the processes the Midwife considers when making clinical decisions for the Black Woman in labour. Data would be inductively analysed utilising Braun and Clarke’s (2006, 2023) Reflective Thematic Analysis (RTA).
It is anticipated that conducting this thesis would engage Midwives in questioning the relevance and applicability of decision-making for Black Women in labour, critically exploring their belief systems and constructs of personalised care, and facilitating a discourse for strategic leaders and educators to provide guidance consistent with the philosophy of personalised care. It is further anticipated that this would enable Midwives to offer culturally and personalised congruent care to the Black Woman in labour.REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Leeds East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
25/YH/0207
Date of REC Opinion
30 Oct 2025
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion