Edinburgh Napier University

  Background: Around 4% of women develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Post Childbirth (PTSD-PC). During childbirth a woman’s perception of her care provider’s interpersonal verbal and nonverbal relationship behaviours, termed ‘Quality of Provider Interaction’ are significantly associated with the development of PTSD-PC.
Aims: To understand how women who develop PTSD-PC and midwives, experience their interactions during care provision. In particular, how they feel during their interactions and what this means to them.
Methods: The qualitative method of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis that incorporates a reflective approach, was used to gain deep understanding of the lived experience of care provider interaction. Six women who met full diagnostic criteria for PTSD-PC and six midwives who provided intrapartum care, participated in individual face-to-face interviews.
Results: Two key findings were identified: 1) Failing to recognise and meet the human needs of both women and midwives, results in poor quality interactions from midwives and poor perception of care provider interaction by women; 2) The study groups of women and midwives both identified the quality of their relationship as central to positive interactions.
Recommendations for practice: (1) Raise the status of psychological wellbeing for childbearing women and make it of equal importance to physical wellbeing, with clear focus upon care provider interaction; (2) Create a midwife centred system that enables midwives to provide optimal care provider interaction and improve relationship-based care; and (3) Challenge underlying toxic cultures that currently persist in the maternity services system, which undermine the work of midwives and consequently the experience of women.
Conclusion: Failure to recognise and meet the human and relationship needs of both childbearing women and midwives contributes to poor care provider interactions offered by midwives and negative perceptions of care provider interactions by women. In response, NHS maternity services need to highlight the importance of the quality of care provider interaction alongside perinatal psychological wellbeing. This requires improved working environments for midwives, so they can optimise their quality of interaction with childbearing women. This will in turn impact upon the incidence and levels of trauma and PTSD-PC experienced by women.