Women's lived experience of compassionate midwifery: Human and professional.

Objective: To develop an understanding of women's lived experience of compassionate midwifery DESIGN: A qualitative study using the principles of Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Data was collected during interviews with 17 women who identified themselves as having received compassionate midwifery care.

Findings: Women participants' experience of compassionate care from midwives was experienced through a sense of a midwife Being With them, Being in Relationship with them and Empowerment.

Spirituality and childbirth: An international virtual co-operative inquiry.

Problem: Medicalised maternity systems do not address spirituality as an aspect of childbirth and its practices of care. Neglecting the spiritual nature of childbirth may negatively affect psychological, emotional and physical wellbeing.

Background: While there is growing interest in the spiritual side of childbirth there is a paucity of literature on the topic, and hence a lack of understanding generally about how to attend to women's needs for emotional and spiritual support in childbirth.

A concept analysis of compassionate midwifery.

Aim: To report a concept analysis of compassionate midwifery.

Background: Recently, compassion has been incorporated into United Kingdom nursing and midwifery language through strategy, policy, recruitment and education. Professional standards direct midwives to practise compassionately therefore the concept of compassionate midwifery exists, although this has yet to be explored as a concept in the UK or internationally.

Midwives' experiences of referring obese women to either a community or home-based antenatal weight management service: Implications for service providers and midwifery practice.

Objective: a variety of services to support women to undertake weight management behaviours during pregnancy have recently been implemented as a means to reduce the risks to mother and infant. In the UK, midwives lead the care of the majority of pregnant women and are seen as the ideal source of referral into antenatal services. However, midwives have reported concerns regarding raising the topic of weight with obese women and negative referral experiences have been cited as a reason not to engage with a service.

Connecting for compassion.

On a mission to promote compassion in midwifery practice I was looking for effective methods of sharing and developing my ideas. I recognised the benefits of networking through more traditional methods but was not really utilising social media. Then another midwife encouraged me to use Twitter.