Dear Sally and Kathleen, and others.
Kathleen, I like your underpinning for your course. Wonderful. It's a
great start. What I would like to say from the perspective of one who did
train in a hospital (and this is where people lay claims to obstetric
models occurring primarily, because of the close association with referral
centres and therefor the 'boyish pretenders') that it is also the
orientation of the individual which is important, and that person's
capacity for growth and critical thought.
I started my course steeped in pathology. I was very knowledgable about
disease processes and physiology, and believed that physiology was the only
basis for knowledge in birth. All that touchy feely stuff was important
window dressing for the main attraction, the physical act of giving birth.
I devalued my course as being less than rigorous. So what happened?
Hard to say, but the re-awakening of my spiritual side with the death of my
mother, a unit in my degree on critical reflection, and some friends who
allowed me to be softer and show vulnerability all helped to realign me.
Tehn I met a wonderful woman who lost a twin and kept another, and who
showed me what it means to BE a midwife, not just DO it or THINK it.
Thus midwifery education in the midwifery model can occur anywhere at any
time in one's career, but we need teachers who ARE midwives, who know how
to BE and women who give birth to midwives as well. And we need the skills
to recognise this when we see it.
I honestly don't think we have solved the riddle of a pedagogy of midwifery
yet. But having a philosophical stance that articulates the being with
might deter people who want to control from doing the course, at least.
And it maintains a focus.
Cheers, Trish
Kathleen said:
>> As a midwifery academic I want to briefly add to this discussion to say
that
>> our course, and I presume, most others in universities, is not based on a
>> medical model.
>> I can almost hear you say; of course she would say that but it probably is
>> REALLY obstetrical and she just doesn't know it.
>> Our course is based on the ACMI Philosophy of Midwifery
>>Our course is based on The Midwifery Partnership Model by Guilland
>> and Pairman. The essential feature of a midwifery model, from my
>> perspective, are that THE MIDWIFERY MODEL IS:
Woman-Focussed
Woman-Controlled
Based on Primary Health Care Principles
Continuity of Care
Partnership with Woman (ideal 1-1)
Collaborative with Health Care Team
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