Over the past two years, I have been leading a project colloquially called ‘PhysBirth’ which has been exploring the experiences of student midwives learning to optimise the physiology of labour and birth across the ‘risk’ spectrum. We have recently published Student midwives’ exposure to physiological birth practices: A cross-sectional study of 3055 births during 2020–23 in England (open access) that analysed the mandatory documentation students have to complete for their registration. Overall, we found the students had more exposure to medical-led intrapartum practices than midwifery-led practices; and while both are important for a rounded education and skill development, we were concerned this was imbalanced. When student midwives do not have good exposure, experience and opportunities to develop their midwifery-led skills, this negatively influences their future practice as newly qualified midwives.

Ultimately, our work also indicates issues for women and birthing people using the service. That rather than individualised care provision during the intrapartum period, which would be demonstrated by a diversity of findings (birthplace, coping strategies, birthing pools, birth position etc.). we found a homogeneity. Therefore, if do not help student midwives to gain a rounded experience, less individualised care will be provided due to a lack of competency and confidence - an ensuing vicious cycle occurs…

To help mitigate the issues we found, we introduced a self-assessment intrapartum assessment tool designed for students and educators. This was published in The Practising Midwife and our accepted version of the article can be read here. We also have a downloadable assessment tool freely available for students and educators alike - click here.

In the article, we also provided a sample lesson plan to help educators embed this into their curriculum which included signposted to a recorded presentation here or the pdf file can be found here which are free for educators to use.

We have two more papers coming from our study and we are delighted that it is being replicated at the University of Suffolk, University of Huddersfield and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin!