What are the experiences of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander midwifery students and midwives? A scoping review.

Background: Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander midwives are underrepresented within the midwifery workforce and is likely compounded by lower graduate rates. This review is a part of the Midwifery Futures Project. It explores the experiences of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander midwives and midwifery students to illuminate issues impacting work and study and uncover successful strategies towards addressing current disparities.

Graduate qualities for preservice health and welfare professionals for collaborative prevention and early intervention for child maltreatment: A qualitative study.

Aim: This study explored Australian nursing, midwifery and social work perspectives on needs within pre-service education to enable interprofessional public health responses to child maltreatment.

Background: Child maltreatment is a global public health concern, but little is known about how well health and welfare professionals are equipped for interprofessional responses to child maltreatment during initial pre-service qualification.

Design: Qualitative, World Café approach with online roundtable discussions.

The sustainability of midwifery group practice: A cross-sectional study of midwives and managers.

Problem: Although there is robust evidence for the benefits of midwifery group practice (MGP) caseload care, there are limited opportunities for women to access this model in Australia. There is also limited knowledge on how to sustain these services.

Background: MGP can benefit childbearing women and babies and improve satisfaction for women and midwives.

Interprofessional Education in Child Protection for Preservice Health and Allied Health Professionals: A Scoping Review.

Health and allied health professionals are uniquely positioned to collaborate in prevention, early intervention and responses to child maltreatment. Effective collaboration requires comprehensive interprofessional education (IPE), and inadequate collaboration across sectors and professions continually contributes to poor outcomes for children. Little is known about what interprofessional preparation health and allied health professionals receive before initial qualification (preservice) that equips them for interprofessional collaboration and provision of culturally safe care in child protection.

Putting Indigenous Cultures and Indigenous Knowledges Front and Centre to Clinical Practice: Katherine Hospital Case Example.

The inclusion of Indigenous cultures, known as the cultural determinants of health, in healthcare policy and health professional education accreditation and registration requirements, is increasingly being recognised as imperative for improving the appalling health and well-being of Indigenous Australians. These inclusions are a strengths-based response to tackling the inequities in Indigenous Australians' health relative to the general population. However, conceptualising the cultural determinants of health in healthcare practice has its contextual challenges, and gaps in implementation evidence are apparent.

Midwifery group practice workforce in Australia: A cross-sectional survey of midwives and managers.

Background: Despite robust evidence on the benefits of midwifery group practice (MGP), there remains difficulties with implementing and sustaining the model. However, contemporary data on the MGP workforce and how each model has been operationalised are limited. This constrains an understanding of the factors that help or hinder implementation and sustainability of MGP.

Developing and evaluating Birthing on Country services for First Nations Australians: the Building On Our Strengths (BOOSt) prospective mixed methods birth cohort study protocol.

Background: With the impact of over two centuries of colonisation in Australia, First Nations families experience a disproportionate burden of adverse pregnancy and birthing outcomes. First Nations mothers are 3-5 times more likely than other mothers to experience maternal mortality; babies are 2-3 times more likely to be born preterm, low birth weight or not to survive their first year. 'Birthing on Country' incorporates a multiplicity of interpretations but conveys a resumption of maternity services in First Nations Communities with Community governance for the best start to life.

Midwives speaking out on COVID-19: The international confederation of midwives global survey.

Background: Maternity services around the world have been disrupted since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) representing one hundred and forty-three professional midwifery associations across the world sought to understand the impact of the pandemic on women and midwives.

Aim: The aim of this study was to understand the global impact of COVID-19 from the point of view of midwives' associations.

Midwife-centred management: a qualitative study of midwifery group practice management and leadership in Australia.

Background: Midwifery group practice (MGP) has consistently demonstrated optimal health and wellbeing outcomes for childbearing women and their babies. In this model, women can form a relationship with a known midwife, improving both maternal and midwife satisfaction. Yet the model is not widely implemented and sustained, resulting in limited opportunities for women to access it.

Maternal asthma in Australian indigenous women and perinatal outcomes: A whole population-linked study.

Objective: To assess the association between maternal asthma and adverse perinatal outcomes in an Australian Indigenous population.

Methods: This prospective cohort study included all Indigenous mother and baby dyads for births from 2001 to 2013 in Western Australia (n = 25 484). Data were linked from Western Australia Births, Deaths, Midwives, Hospital, and Emergency Department collections.

The Daalbirrwirr Gamambigu (Safe Children) Model: Embedding Cultural Safety in Child Protection Responses for Australian Aboriginal Children in Hospital Settings.

The aim of this paper is to describe the development of a model of care to embed cultural safety for Aboriginal children into paediatric hospital settings. The Daalbirrwirr Gamambigu (pronounced "Dahl-beer-weer gum-um-be-goo" in the Gumbaynggirr language means 'safe children') model encompasses child protection responses at clinical, managerial and organisational levels of health services. A review of scholarly articles and grey literature followed by qualitative interviews with Aboriginal health professionals formed the evidence base for the model, which then underwent rounds of consultation for cultural suitability and clinical utility.

The impact of three-dimensional visualisation on midwifery students' application of knowledge of the third stage of labour to practice: Qualitative findings of a pilot randomised controlled trial.

Problem: Complex physiological processes are often difficult for midwifery students to comprehend when using traditional teaching and learning approaches. Online resources for midwifery education are limited.

Background: Face to face instructional workshops using simulation have had some impact on improving understanding.

Factors influencing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women's breastfeeding practice: A scoping narrative review.

Background: The nutritional and health benefits of breastfeeding for infants and young children are well-established however rates of breastfeeding initiation and duration for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are lower than non-Indigenous children.

Aim: To describe factors influencing breastfeeding practice amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women.

Methods: A scoping narrative review was conducted using the Joanna Briggs Institute framework.

Implementing midwifery continuity of care models in regional Australia: A constructivist grounded theory study.

Problem/background: Strong international evidence demonstrates significantly improved outcomes for women and their babies when supported by midwifery continuity of care models. Despite this, widespread implementation has not been achieved, especially in regional settings.

Aim: To develop a theoretical understanding of the factors that facilitate or inhibit the implementation of midwifery continuity models within regional settings.

The impact of three-dimensional visualisation on midwifery student learning, compared with traditional education for teaching the third stage of labour: A pilot randomised controlled trial.

Background: Complex physiological processes are often difficult for midwifery students to comprehend when using traditional teaching and learning approaches. Face to face instructional workshops using simulation have had some impact on improving understanding. However, in the 21st century new technologies offer the opportunity to provide alternative learning approaches.

Midwives providing woman-centred care during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia: A national qualitative study.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused isolation, fear, and impacted on maternal healthcare provision.

Aim: To explore midwives' experiences about how COVID-19 impacted their ability to provide woman-centred care, and what lessons they have learnt as a result of the mandated government and hospital restrictions (such as social distancing) during the care of the woman and her family.

Methods: A qualitative interpretive descriptive study was conducted.

Management and sustainability of midwifery group practice: Thematic and lexical analyses of midwife interviews.

Background: Although there is high-level evidence supporting positive perinatal outcomes for midwifery group practice (MGP) care, not all women can access this model due to a failure to implement or sustain it. The way that MGPs are managed could be an important factor in whether they are successful in the long-term.

Aim: To explore what determines optimal management of MGP in Australia, and the influence it has on sustainability of MGP.

A call for action that cannot go to voicemail: Research activism to urgently improve Indigenous perinatal health and wellbeing.

In this call to action, a coalition of Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers from Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, United States and Canada argue for the urgent need for adequately funded Indigenous-led solutions to perinatal health inequities for Indigenous families in well-resourced settler-colonial countries. Authors describe examples of successful community-driven programs making a difference and call on all peoples to support and resource Indigenous-led perinatal health services by providing practical actions for individuals and different groups.

Leadership and management in midwifery-led continuity of care models: A thematic and lexical analysis of a scoping review.

Objective: Although midwifery-led continuity of care is associated with superior outcomes for mothers and babies, it is not available to all women. Issues with implementation and sustainability might be addressed by improving how it is led and managed - yet little is known about what constitutes the optimal leadership and management of midwifery-led continuity models.

Design: Following a systematic search of academic databases for relevant publications, 25 publications were identified.

Talking about the 'r' word: a right to a health system that is free of racism.

Australia's local, state, territory and federal governments have agreed that the 10-year life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians will be closed by 2031. However, annual Closing the Gap reports tabled by the various prime ministers in the Australian Parliament (for the past 12 years) have consistently indicated that the life expectancy gap continues to widen. Australia has seen more than three decades of government policies since the landmark 1989 National Aboriginal health strategy.

Women's unmet needs in early labour: Qualitative analysis of free-text survey responses in the M@NGO trial of caseload midwifery.

Objective: to analyse women's experiences of early labour care in caseload midwifery in Australia.

Design: this study sits within a multi-site randomised controlled trial of caseload midwifery versus standard care. Participant surveys were conducted at 6-weeks and 6-months after birth.

The experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Bachelor of Midwifery students: An integrative literature review.

Issue: There is an underrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander midwives across Australia and an inadequate number of graduating midwives to redress this. A major pillar for the Birthing on Country Model is maternity care workforce development.

Aim: The purpose of this review is to examine the enablers and barriers that Aboriginal students experience while undertaking the Bachelor of Midwifery degree in Australia.

Evaluation of an Australian Aboriginal model of maternity care: The Malabar Community Midwifery Link Service.

Background: The urban-based Malabar Community Midwifery Link Service integrates multidisciplinary wrap-around services along-side continuity of midwifery care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mothers and babies.

Aim: To evaluate the Malabar Service from 1 January 2007 to 31 December 2014.

Methods: A mixed method design.