Why caring counts

This article introduces the 'compassionate focused' approach to midwifery (Gilbert 2009) and outlines its relevance to midwifery. This psychological model provides us with a theoretical and research basis to underpin what we already know at an intuitive level--that when you show care and compassion to a woman in labour, you improve birth outcome. Psychology tells us that compassion is fundamental to good midwifery and can help us in our efforts to increase normality and improve the experiences of women during the perinatal period. In this article, I suggest how the compassionate focused approach can be applied to our understanding of good midwifery.