Midwife led maternity care models: A scoping review
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Date
2023
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Abstract
Introduction: Midwife led maternity care models focus on normality, continuity of
care and being cared for by trusted midwives from preconception throughout
pregnancy, labour and the postnatal period. The aim of this model is to provide
care either in community or hospital settings, normally to healthy women with
uncomplicated pregnancies. Methods: The scoping review used search terms for
the PICO components with synonyms, related terms and specialist terms were
harvested from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)© and Embase© using
Rayyan. Database searches were from PubMed, EBSCO-CINAHL, Dimensions,
Web of Science, SCOPUS, and the Cochrane Library of Systematic reviews and
African Journals Online (AJOL). A total of 17 058 citations were identified and 69
remained for analysis after removing duplicates and others which did not meet
the criteria. Results: Of the 69 included studies, 14 were qualitative, 34 were
quantitative, 19 were RCTs and 2 were mixed methods. Only 13% of the studies
were from Africa and the rest were from the developed world. Six themes
emerged as follows: reduced interventions in labour; positive birth outcomes;
satisfaction with care; cost effectiveness of services; autonomous practice and
quality midwifery services; good woman–midwife relationship and several
subthemes. Discussion: Midwife-led care had a significant positive effect on
physiological outcomes for women when compared to physician-led care, had
reduced surgical interventions and augmentation, as well as less usage of
pharmacological analgesia. This may also assist in acceptability, accessibility and
availability of such a model in all maternity care units and community settings in
LMICs.
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Danda, G. et al. (2023) Midwife led maternity care models: A scoping review. Discovery 59, e102d1304