Midwives' role in severe maternal morbidity Version 1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Midwives’ Role in Severe Maternal Morbidity: the views of women, birth partners and midwives.
IRAS ID
219734
Contact name
Kathryn Almack
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Hertfordshire
Duration of Study in the UK
4 years, 2 months, 4 days
Research summary
Maternal deaths are rare in the United Kingdom (UK), yet women are still dying from preventable causes (Knight, 2016). Women are often now older, more overweight and have multiple health problems which may lead to more complications in childbirth (Knight et al., 2018). The UK has a robust system for recording the numbers of women who die or become seriously ill, but there are few studies that explore the experiences of women who survive or their families (Dunning et al., 2016; Hinton, et al., 2014a; Hinton et al., 2014b; Snowdon et al., 2012). The contribution of midwifery practice to quality maternity care is recognised globally (Sandall, 2012), yet, no studies have been found that explore the views of midwives who care for seriously ill women during childbirth. This study uses a qualitative approach to explore midwives' role when women become critically ill. Between 15-30 women who are discharged home from hospital following severe illness and their birth partners will be invited to participate in audio recorded semi-structured interviews. They will be offered the choice of being interviewed together or separately. Women whose birth partners decline to take part are welcome to still participate in the study. Midwives employed with the participating NHS Trust will be invited to take part in a focus group. 2-4 Focus groups with between 4 and 10 midwives in each will be conducted. The proposed research site is a maternity unit in the East of England that employs over 200 midwives, facilitates nearly 6000 births and cares for approximately 200 seriously ill women each year. Ethical approval will be sought from Health Research Authority. Research and development approval has been obtained in principle. Following transcription, the researcher will use thematic analysis aided by qualitative data analysis software to organise, code and analyse the data.
REC name
East of England - Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/EE/0211
Date of REC Opinion
23 Sep 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion