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Obstetric and Midwifery Education: Context and Trends

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Clinical Education for the Health Professions

Abstract

Medical and midwifery healthcare professionals have overlapping working profiles and yet have roles exclusive for each team. This chapter presents an overview of the interface of the two professions and highlights the current topical issues trending in this field. The medical and midwifery workforce both share a joint working space and client-base but their roles can be quite different while caring for the same woman. The challenges of pregnancy and birth complications require a high degree of collaboration and team work from the two professions. This chapter is coauthored by both medical and midwifery educational leads. We are located and knowledgeable from the Australian healthcare system; however, acknowledge many of the issues we raise will resonate with readers from other countries.

Certain characteristics make obstetric medicine and midwifery unique in regard to the skill-sets required. Work-based placements form the cornerstone of clinical learning. Although the curriculum for these respective professions enforces mandatory skills requirement, learners may struggle with presence of scant opportunities to learn from pregnant women. This may be especially due to the intimate nature of maternity care and occurrence of sudden unpredictable emergency pregnancy or birth-related complications. Creative ways of teaching complex skills like haptic procedures, and clinical decision-making in difficult situations, need to be provided. In this chapter, we describe the intrinsic challenges faced by learners of the medical and midwifery professions. We also address these learning issues by describing innovative initiatives to support medical and midwifery student preparation for practice.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Arunaz Kumar

  2. Deakin University and Western Health Partnership, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Linda Sweet

Authors
  1. Arunaz Kumar
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  2. Linda Sweet
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Correspondence to Arunaz Kumar .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia

    Debra Nestel

  2. King's College London, London, UK

    Gabriel Reedy

  3. School of Nursing and Midwifery, La Trobe University, Bundoora, VIC, Australia

    Lisa McKenna

  4. Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, Bond University, Manchester, UK

    Suzanne Gough

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Kumar, A., Sweet, L. (2020). Obstetric and Midwifery Education: Context and Trends. In: Nestel, D., Reedy, G., McKenna, L., Gough, S. (eds) Clinical Education for the Health Professions. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6106-7_11-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6106-7_11-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-981-13-6106-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-13-6106-7

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