Community midwives views of postnatal care in the UK; A descriptive qualitative study
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Objective To explore views and experiences of community midwives delivering postnatal care.Design A descriptive qualitative study design undertaking focus groups with community midwives and community midwifery team leaders.Setting All focus groups were carried out in community midwifery care settings, across four hospitals in two NHS organisations, April to June 2018 in the West Midlands, UK.Participants 47 midwives: 34 community midwives and 13 community midwifery team leaders took part in 7 focus groups.Findings Inductive framework analysis of data led to the development of themes and sub-themes relating to factors influencing discharge from hospital, strategies to address increases in discharge and the broader challenges to providing care. Conditions on the postnatal ward and women's experiences of care in the hospital were factors influencing timing of discharge from hospital that resulted in community midwives managing women and babies with more complex needs. In order to manage increased workloads, there was growing but varied use of flexible approaches to providing care such as telephone consultations, postnatal clinics, and maternity support workers.Key conclusions and implications for practice In a context of short postnatal hospital stays, community midwives appear to be responding to women's needs and service pressures in the postnatal period. Wider implementation of specific strategies to organise and deliver support to women and babies may further improve care and outcomes.
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Domiciliary midwifery by midwifery students helps address the shortage of healthcare professionals in underserved areas, ensuring women have access to quality care regardless of their location.
“It also helps to address the shortage of healthcare professionals in underserved areas, ensuring that women have access to quality care regardless of their location [13].”
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Apili, F., Isoke, R., Mann, J., Matte, R. F., Abeja, C. J., Auma, A. G., Atuhairwe, I., Agaba, B., & Ukoha, W. C. (2026) · BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth · doi:10.1186/s12884-026-09489-0
“It also helps to address the shortage of healthcare professionals in underserved areas, ensuring that women have access to quality care regardless of their location [13].”
- Authors
- Kokab, F., Jones, E., Goodwin, L., Taylor, B., & Kenyon, S.
- Affiliations
- University of Birmingham (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Kokab, Farina
- Venue
- Midwifery
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2022-01
- Volume
- 104
- Pages
- 103183
- ISSN
- 0266-6138 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3206271973
- Cited by
- 15
- References
- 39
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 6 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 1
- FWCI
- 1.59
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Licence
- Locations
- Midwifery (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- University of Birmingham Research Portal (University of Birmingham) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- UWE Research Repository (UWE Bristol) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Warwick Research Archive Portal (University of Warwick) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Obstetrics and Gynecology › Maternal and Perinatal Health Interventions
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Maternal and Neonatal Healthcare
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Research and Theory › Nursing education and management
- Keywords
- community midwives, postpartum care, midwives' perceptions, hospital discharge timing, midwife workload, telephone consultation, women's experiences of care
- MeSH terms
- Female, United Kingdom, Humans, Midwifery, Postnatal Care, Pregnancy, Focus Groups, Qualitative Research
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