Student and qualified midwives' attitudes to aspects of obstetric practice

Midwife groups qualified for less than 5 years, 5-10 years and more than 10 years, and a group of student midwives, expressed degrees of agreement/disagreement with statements relating to aspects of obstetric practice. Responses were factor analysed and six interpretable rotated factors were obtained. Factors 1 to 3 represented 'patient-centred' attitudes to obstetric issues of increasing technicality. Factor 1 could be construed as a broad attitude to women's rights, factor 2 as an attitude to pregnant women's preferences being the main determinant of obstetric decisions of a relatively non-technical nature and factor 3 as an attitude to pregnant women exercising control in relation to obstetric decisions where technical expertise may be a major consideration. Different patterns of factor score differences between the four length of qualification groups and between student nationality subgroups were found for these factors. Implications of these distinctive patterns for the training of midwives are discussed.