Promoting normal birthing : aspiring to develop a midwife-led scope of practice

The purpose of this study was to develop a substantive theory of the processes used by midwives in exercising their scope of practice when caring for women and babies during normal birthing. The grounded theory approach of Strauss and Corbin (Corbin & Strauss, 2008; Strauss & Corbin, 1998, 1990) was employed to inform data collection and analysis, including the use of participant observation and in-depth interviews with seventeen midwives practising in a hospital maternity unit. From this approach, the core category of Promoting normal birthing: Aspiring to develop a midwife-led scope of practice emerged, illustrating the processes utilised by midwives in practice to support normal birth