Early mothering - a shared experience : feminist action research with midwives and mothers

Penelope Ann Barrett

This thesis is the story of my involvement in feminist action research with midwives, aimed at improving midwifery practice and enhancing women's satisfaction with their early mothering experiences. For a period of eighteen months, an action research group of midwives met regularly at the Royal Hospital for Women in Sydney to share conversation about their experiences and feelings, reflecting on what was happening around them as they became change agents. Feminist principles and processes guided the phases of action research as method and have been employed throughout all stages of the study, including: preparation; fieldwork; data collection and analysis; writing; and presentation. These principles and processes underpin the evolution of relationships between participants. The subject matter of the research is women's experiences during the early mothering period. The potential for improvement or change incorporates the short term goals of: enriching understanding of women's experiences, including participating midwives becoming more self-aware and informed about their own practice milieu; and developing sensitive midwifery practices which help to make women's experiences more enjoyable. In the longer term, the potential for improvement or positive change relates to the aim of enhancing women's participation in informed decisions concerning care. Processes and principles of feminist action research have led not only to a change in practice through the establishment of the 'Early Mothering Group' (EMG), but also to insights and understandings about taken-for granted aspects of social power which affect midwives' practices and women's access to information. The Early Mothering Group (EMG) implemented by these midwives is now a permanent part of midwifery practice within the Hospital, offering mothers a physical and temporal space to meet and talk with each other and form supportive social networks before they go home. Together with mothers' written evaluations of the EMGs, feedback from mothers and midwives about the change was recorded on audio 'field-tapes' via midwives' stories and reflections at Midwives' Action Research Group (MARG) meetings. Therapeutic processes (debriefing, catharsis, and validation) blended with functional processes (meeting and sharing stories, forming supportive social networks, and learning and sharing knowledge) in both MARG meetings and EMGs to reveal the pivotal role that ordinary talk plays in enhancing women's emotional and social well-being. These findings are reflected in the childbirth research literature, wherein providing an opportunity for birth women to meet together is suggested as a way of decreasing the chances that maladaptive psychosocial responses may occur after childbirth. This thesis records how midwives wove the therapeutic potential of women's ordinary talk in midwifery from the threads of their own conversations into a richly textured, multi-layered and colourful fabric called feminist midwifery praxis. Connections between clinical practice research and midwives' ability to provide sensitive care have been disclosed, together with the way these impinge on women's access to informed choices. Implications of the research flow on for generating knowledge which is not only useful and relevant, but also meaningful for birth women.

Early mothering - a shared experience : feminist action research with midwives and mothers

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Early mothering - a shared experience : feminist action research with midwives and mothers

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