Frameworks for midwifery care in Great Britain: an exploration of quality assurance

In order to design a quality assurance tool for midwifery it was necessary to assess current frameworks and standards for practice. With that aim a questionnaire was sent to all midwifery managers in the UK. The findings showed that 'Planned Individualised Care' is the favoured framework for midwifery practice and that the use of nursing models (or adapted versions of these) and midwifery models is widespread but not prevalent. Documentation for midwifery care is not always in accordance with the favoured framework for care as reported. The standards articulated in the three 'Maternity Care in Action' reports are those aspired to by most maternity units. Methods of assessing the quality of maternity care are many and varied but show a clear trend towards giving precedence to gauging client satisfaction with the service.