'Nice, normal midwifery'? A longitudinal study of the socialisation of student midwives

This qualitative, longitudinal study explores and compares the experiences of ten student midwives as they progressed through their midwifery training. Five of the students were undertaking the eighteen month course for trained nurses, while the other five were undertaking the three year course for those without a nursing qualification. A grounded theory approach was used, based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews carried out with participants at the beginning, middle and end of their midwifery course. The central finding of the study was that having started the course with a focus on birth as a normal life event, by the end of it their perspective had shifted to one which now focused more on the potential dangers of birth. They worried about `things going wrong'; such as the possibility of death or damage to mother or baby and how they would deal as newly qualified midwives with such situations. The tension between treating birth as a normal life event yet remaining at the same time alert to what is, in essence, the possibility of death, is one with which every midwife has to deal. Not surprisingly, perhaps, it caused these students considerable anxiety, particularly as they neared the end of their course. The study explores factors that impinged on their changing perceptions and levels of anxiety. These were identified from the data as the following themes: the nature of the support received by students, the relationship between theory and practice, and the characteristics of the culture within which they were learning midwifery. In the conclusion recommendations for changes in midwifery education and possible areas for future research are suggested