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.

Collective action for the development of national standards for midwifery education in Australia.

This article describes a sequence of events that led to the development of national standards for the accreditation of Australian midwifery education programmes for initial registration. This process occurred within a climate of polarised opinions about the value of the introduction of three-year degree programmes for midwives who are not nurses (known as the BMid in Australia) and concerns about the invisibility of midwifery within nursing regulation, education, policy and nomenclature. Concerted efforts to develop standards to inform the introduction of BMid programmes through a process of collective action are described.

Midwifery capacity building in Papua New Guinea: Key achievements and ways forward.

Background: Papua New Guinea has some of the poorest health outcomes in the Asia-Pacific region. Maternal mortality is unacceptably high and there is a severe midwifery shortage requiring a quadrupling of the workforce.

Aim: This paper outlines the findings of an evaluation of the Maternal Child Health Initiative (MCHI) (2012-2013) to determine key factors contributing to maternal health workforce strengthening.

Is Asian ethnicity an independent risk factor for severe perineal trauma in childbirth? A systematic review of the literature.

Objective: To undertake a systematic review of the literature to determine whether Asian ethnicity is an independent risk factor for severe perineal trauma in childbirth.

Method: Ovid Medline, CINAHL, and Cochrane databases published in English were used to identify appropriate research articles from 2000 to 2010, using relevant terms in a variety of combinations. All articles included in this systematic review were assessed using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) 'making sense of evidence' tools.

Developing a Core Competency Model and Educational Framework for Primary Maternity Services: a national consensus approach.

Background: An appropriately educated and competent workforce is crucial to an effective health care system. The National Health Workforce Taskforce (now Health Workforce Australia) and the Maternity Services Inter-Jurisdictional Committee funded a project to develop Core Competencies and Educational Framework for Primary Maternity Services in Australia. These competencies recognise the interdisciplinary nature of maternity care in Australia where care is provided by general practitioners, obstetricians and midwives as well as other professionals.

The role of the midwife in Australia: views of women and midwives.

Objective: to research the role of midwives in Australia from the perspectives of women and midwives. This study was part of a commissioned national research project to articulate the scope of practice of Australian midwives and to develop national competency standards to assist midwives to deliver safe and competent midwifery care.

Design: a multi-method approach with qualitative data collected from surveys with women and interviews with midwives.

The development of national competency standards for the midwife in Australia.

Objective: to develop and validate national competency standards for midwives in Australia. This study was part of a commissioned national research project to articulate the scope of practice of Australian midwives and to develop national competency standards to assist midwives to deliver safe and competent midwifery care.

Design: a multi-method, staged approach was used to collect data through a literature review, workshop consultations, interviews, surveys and written submissions in order to develop national competency standards for Australian midwives.

Maternity care in the bush: using the Internet to provide educational resources to isolated practitioners.

Introduction: Telecommunication infrastructure is being rolled out across Australia with little knowledge about the uptake by health professionals in remote areas. Computer mediated communication has the potential to offer educational support to remote practitioners; however, the viability of this is uncertain. The aim of this research was to establish and evaluate an internet-based resource library targeting the needs of remote area maternity service providers.

Addressing the barriers to midwifery--Australian midwives speaking out.

This research gives a voice to midwives in identifying the barriers and current problems in the organisation of maternity care in Australia. Using a critical feminist research approach, data was collected from a cross section of midwives nationally. Through standard qualitative research methods, themes were identified that enabled analysis of significant issues affecting the current status of midwifery.