Midwives' views on redefining midwifery 1: health promotion

To explore midwives' views of the recommendations outlined in the Making a Difference document, a regional survey was conducted in seven hospitals in the north west of England. Specifically designed, semi-structured questionnaires were administered to all practising clinical midwives from the study hospitals (n=735). Four hundred and sixty eight questionnaires were returned giving a response rate of 66.4%. In particular the study aimed to highlight any midwifery anxieties, identify training needs and explore midwives' perspective of the effect of the expanding role on service provision. The structured data were analysed descriptively. The open responses were analysed using qualitative methods. This, the first of four papers, focuses on the midwives views of their role in health promotion. The main findings suggested that midwives are generally receptive towards the potential changes to their role, however some reservations were reported.