Salford academics continue pioneering work towards more inclusive midwifery care

The team (Sheridan Thomas, Georgia Allan (both midwifery lecturers), Associate Professor Christine Furber and Professor Vanessa Heaslip) carried out a systematic review of actions that aim to challenge and change systems built on power imbalances in midwifery education.

Their paper, published in Women and Birth, is the first to review these sorts of interventions and establish key principles from efforts to decolonise midwifery education.

The researchers identified four key themes: 

• centring Indigenous knowledge and leadership within midwifery education
• developing cultural safety by going beyond awareness of the issues to incorporate deeper self-reflection around subjects such as racism, white privilege and health equity, and confronting colonial biases
• transformative learning, where critical reflection and safe spaces are key to development
• systemic change and institutional support to ensure learning is maintained over time 

Sheridan explained: “We know that midwifery education is predominantly shaped by Eurocentric medical models, often marginalising non-Western, Indigenous and ethnically diverse approaches. Reforming midwifery education is essential to combating systemic racism and enabling midwives to offer culturally safe care to women and birthing people from ethnically diverse and Indigenous backgrounds.”

Georgia continued: “Our findings highlight some good practice in designing interventions promoting cultural safety, however, educators often lacked the skills and confidence to implement these changes effectively. These barriers must be addressed if we are to see long-term change and impact.”