The emotional and professional wellbeing of Australian midwives: A comparison between those providing continuity of midwifery care and those not providing continuity

Background

Continuity of midwifery care contributes to significant positive outcomes for women and babies. There is a perception that providing continuity of care may negatively impact on the wellbeing and professional lives of midwives.

Aim

To compare the emotional and professional wellbeing as well as satisfaction with time off and work-life balance of midwives providing continuity of care with midwives not providing continuity.

Method

Online survey. Measures included; Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI); Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21; and Perceptions of Empowerment in Midwifery Scale (PEMS-Revised). The sample (n = 862) was divided into two groups; midwives working in continuity (n = 214) and those not working in continuity (n = 648). Mann Whitney U tests were used to compare the groups.

Results

The continuity group had significantly lower scores on each of the burnout subscales (CBI Personal p = .002; CBI Work p < .001; CBI Client p < .001) and Anxiety (p = .007) and Depression (p = .004) sub-scales. Midwives providing continuity reported significantly higher scores on the PEMs Autonomy/Empowerment subscale (p < .001) and the Skills and Resources subscale (p = .002). There was no difference between the groups in terms of satisfaction with time off and work-life balance.

Conclusion

Our results indicate that providing continuity of midwifery care is also beneficial for midwives. Conversely, midwives working in shift-based models providing fragmented care are at greater risk of psychological distress. Maternity service managers should feel confident that re-orientating care to align with the evidence is likely to improve workforce wellbeing and is a sustainable way forward.