Making midwifery work visible: The multiple purposes of documentation.

Background: Midwives have a professional, ethical and legal obligation to effectively and thoroughly document the care provided to women and the decisions made within the partnership relationship. To appreciate the best approach to documenting midwifery care, it is important to first understand the purpose of midwifery documentation.

Aim: The aim of this article is to explore the literature in relation to the purposes of midwifery documentation.

The Concerns of Competent Novices during a Mentoring Year.

In an innovative group mentoring approach, four experienced midwives mentored four new graduates during their first year of practice. The new graduates were in practice as case-loading registered midwives having completed a three year Bachelor of Midwifery degree. Detailed data about the new graduates' concerns were collected throughout the year of the mentoring project.