References

Saving mothers' lives: reviewing maternal deaths to make motherhood safer: 2006–2008. The eighth report on confidential enquiries into maternal deaths in the United Kingdom. BJOG. 2011; 118:1-203 https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-0528.2010.02847.x

Council of Deans of Health. Educating the Future Midwife: Discussion paper on the key future outcomes for registered midwife education. 2017. https://councilofdeans.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Educating-the-Future-Midwife-FINAL-Nov-17.pdf (accessed 11 April 2018)

Changing Childbirth. Report of the Expert Maternity Group.London: HMSO; 1993

Department of Health and Social Care. Women to have dedicated midwives throughout pregnancy and birth. 2018. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/women-to-have-dedicated-midwives-throughout-pregnancy-and-birth (accessed 20 April 2018)

Francis R. Report of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry.London: The Stationery Office; 2013

Fraser D, Murphy R, Worth-Butler M. An outcome evaluation of the effectiveness of pre-registration midwifery programmes of education.London: English National Board for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting; 1997

Gadamer HG. Truth and Method (revised, 2nd edn. London and New York, NY: Continuum International Publishing Group; 2004

Henderson C. A new voice for midwives. British Journal of Midwifery. 1993; 1:(1) https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.12968/bjom.1993.1.1.2

International Confederation of Midwives 2013. Global standards for midwifery education (2010): Amended 2013. https://internationalmidwives.org/assets/uploads/documents/CoreDocuments/ICM%20Standards%20Guidelines_ammended2013.pdf (accessed 11 April 2018)

Kirkup B. The Report of the Morecambe Bay Investigation.London: The Stationery Office; 2015

Saving Lives, Improving Mothers' Care: Lessons learned to inform maternity care from the UK and Ireland Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths and Morbidity 2013–15. In: Knight M, Nair M, Tuffnell D (eds). Oxford: National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford; 2017

Why Mothers Die 2000–2002: The sixth report of the confidential enquiries into maternal deaths in the United Kingdom. In: Lewis G (ed). London: RCOG Press; 2004

Saving mothers' lives: reviewing maternal deaths to make motherhood safer 2003–2005, ed. In: Lewis G London: Confidential Enquiry into Maternal and Child Health; 2007

Standards for pre-registration midwifery education.London: NMC; 2009

Quality assurance framework for nursing and midwifery education.London: NMC; 2017a

The Quality assurance framework For nursing and midwifery education.London: NMC; 2017b

Quality Assurance Agency. The UK Quality Code for Higher Education. 2017. http://www.qaa.ac.uk/assuring-standards-and-quality/the-quality-code (accessed 20 April 2018)

Midwifery Educator Core Competencies.Geneva: WHO; 2013

Midwifery education: Reflecting on the past and changing for the future

02 May 2018
BJM 25th anniversary
02 May 2018
Volume 26 · Issue 5

Abstract

In 1993, Dr Lesley Briscoe was a clinical midwife, while Elinor Clarke, who wrote for the inagural issue, was a tutor and honorary lecturer. They look back on 25 years of midwifery education

Midwifery education is dynamic and responsive to changes in society, population demographic, theory and policy. Changes to education since British Journal of Midwifery began in 1993 have been phenomenal. The overarching aim of midwifery education is to prepare undergraduate students to be eligible to register as a midwife following a programme of theory and clinical practice and to enhance the potential of a midwifery workforce via postgraduate education. Reflecting on the past 25 years of midwifery education provides insights into the challenges of midwifery practice and the need to prepare midwives to be reflective and responsive to transformation as we advance towards 2025.

Looking back over the past 25 years of midwifery education enables us to learn from old ways of working and the related events that took place, to help plan for a future where the women is at the centre of personalised safe care. In the first edition of British Journal of Midwifery, it was noted that a change in the content and the implementation of educational programmes was essential to enable midwives to take full responsibility as the central providers of care during childbirth (Henderson, 1993). Today, midwives work in an environment as equal members of the healthcare team, and multidisciplinary working that recognises how human factors influence safety in maternity care is crucial to our understanding. However, recognition does not mean that we are always successful in achieving excellent standards of maternity care, something that has been documented in multiple maternity surveys over time (Lewis, 2004; Lewis, 2007; Centre for Maternal and Child Enquiries (CEMACE), 2011; Knight et al, 2017).

Register now to continue reading

Thank you for visiting British Journal of Midwifery and reading some of our peer-reviewed resources for midwives. To read more, please register today. You’ll enjoy the following great benefits:

What's included

  • Limited access to our clinical or professional articles

  • New content and clinical newsletter updates each month

Register
Or continue by

Signing in with your registered email address

Responsive
Dynamic curriculum
Standards
Midwifery education
Quality Assurance of Education
Transformation