Healing trauma with interprofessional collaboration and trauma-informed perinatal care: A qualitative case study

The interprofessional education collaborative (IPEC) core competencies (CCs) describe standards for effective interprofessional health care practice and education; these standards are updated periodically based on stakeholder feedback. The purpose of this project was to use a qualitative case study approach to describe one multiparous birth trauma survivor's fifth birth experience with an interprofessional birth care team (IBCT) and to juxtapose her experiences and perspectives with the IPEC core competencies (IPEC CCs). This approach enabled us to identify strengths and gaps in the standards for interprofessional health care education and practice specific to perinatal care.

One in-depth, open-ended, semi-structured interview was conducted to elicit the participant's fifth birth experience. Information from her previous births and the IPEC CCs was used to design the interview guide, and we used independent, deductive, consensus coding to identify themes from verbatim transcripts.

Three themes were identified: (a) Establishing a therapeutic patient-provider relationship; (b) Prioritizing communication, respect, and knowledge in person-centered care; and (c) Shared decision-making as the crux of collaborative care. The participant's narrative elevated person-centered, trauma-informed care (TIC) principles as critical to effective interprofessional birth care and as essential threads for the IPEC CCs.

One survivor's positive experience after prior birth trauma illustrates the critical role IPEC CCs may play in collaborative perinatal care provided by IBCTs. In our analysis, we also identify the need to explicitly incorporate TIC principles and person-centered language in health care competencies that support the standards for perinatal health care education and practice.