Midwifery education for safe motherhood

To determine the useability (relevance, clarity and quality of content), applicability (ease of use) and accessibility (structure and form) of a series of new safe motherhood midwifery education modules.

Questionnaire survey and focus group discussions, preceded by a two week clinical skills course and an eight day orientation to using the modules.

Nursing and midwifery education institutions, regional training centres, acute-care hospital facilities and community settings in Ethiopia, Fiji, Lesotho, Mozambique and Nepal.

Thirty-six teachers, 82 midwives, nurse-midwives and auxiliary nurse-midwives from practice settings, and 60 post basic midwifery students.

Overall it was found that the introductory information and the technical content of the modules were easy to understand and use as were the instructions for both teachers and students. The presentation of the material was orderly and easy to follow; the language was comprehensible; and the illustrations were appropriate, clear and facilitated teaching. The teachers found that they were able to use most of the teaching/learning methods, teach most of the skills in the modules, and use the guidelines for assessing competence. The main difficulties encountered included adherence to the recommended time frame for some of the classroom sessions; the limited availability of clinical cases for teaching the specific skills in the modules and time limitations in the clinical area for practising the skills; and the provision of transport for community visits, data to complete community profiles, and time to complete other planned community activities. The students identified the need for a set of learning materials which they could take with them for future reference, and both teachers and students expressed concern about resources to support, and legislation to cover, the application of the skills taught/learned.

The modules have the potential to strengthen and support the education of midwives in developing countries, enabling them to make motherhood safer and contribute to a reduction in maternal mortality by providing better midwifery care.