Implementation of normal childbirth guidelines among midwives: Adherence and influencing factors

Clinical practice guidelines on normal childbirth were issued worldwide with a view to achieve evidence-based, cost-effective and universal intrapartum care. Effective implementation of guideline recommendations is impossible without a full evaluation and understanding of current practice and factors influencing adherence among midwives.

This study aimed to explore midwives' adherence to clinical practice guidelines on normal childbirth and factors influencing the implementation of guideline recommendations in mainland China.

We used a mixed-method sequential explanatory design.

A national level cross-sectional survey was conducted among 718 midwives to investigate their adherence to guideline recommendations on normal childbirth. Based on the findings of quantitative study phase, we developed the interview outline and performed semi-structured interviews with thirteen midwives to explore potential factors influencing their implementation of normal childbirth guidelines. An inductive thematic analysis was undertaken to identify themes, which were then deductively mapped to the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF).

Midwives' adherence to the guideline recommendations was relatively low, with non-adherence to thirteen guideline recommendations (41.94%) being observed. Six domains on the TDF and one additional theme were found to be factors influencing midwives' implementation of guideline recommendations on normal childbirth, with behavioural regulation, beliefs about consequences, professional roles and responsibilities being identified as barriers for interventions recommended against use, knowledge, environmental context and resources being identified as enablers for interventions recommended for use, and skills and women's preference being identified as barriers/enabler for both.

Guideline adherence can be improved by multifaceted efforts at professional, organizational and maternal levels. The identification of barriers and enablers of guideline implementation provides a solid foundation for further reducing non-evidence-based intrapartum interventions.