Obstacles to using a database in midwifery

The increasing emphasis on evidence-based care poses a range of practical problems, not least of which is access to the information on which care is to be based. This article reports on a Scottish study that examined the impact of giving midwifery units access to the Cochrane pregnancy and childbirth database. The results suggest that installing the database had little effect on practice. A key issue was computer use. Although the midwives had a positive attitude towards computers, they did not feel they had the necessary skills to find information on the databases. Given that 70% of those questioned used computers regularly, the cause of their uncertainty is not clear.