Editorial

Article Outline

• Copyright

Welcome to the first issue of Women and Birth: the Journal of the Australian College of Midwives. The introduction of the new look journal, under the auspices of Elsevier Science, is an exciting time for midwifery; not just in Australia, but internationally. Not only does the new title encourage a focus on the birth of a baby but also the re-birth of woman into mother. Further, the title also celebrates the re-birth of the midwifery profession itself in this period of history. Midwifery now has a clear focus on the recipient of our care and concern; women during the childbearing year. This journal gives a new forum for scholars in midwifery and related disciplines to discuss, debate, develop and refine their ideas about how to promote optimal health and wellness for childbearing women and their babies.

Women & Birth publishes on all matters that affect women in relation to birth, from pre-conceptual counselling, through pregnancy, birth, and the early parenting period. We are also concerned with the longer-term health effects of childbearing for women and babies. Our woman-centred focus is inclusive of the woman's baby, unborn and newborn, both well and ill, and covers both normal and complex pregnancies and the postnatal period. The journal seeks papers from midwives, other health professionals, consumers and scholars from disciplines who have a contribution to make to our understanding of matters affecting women and through the childbearing period. Sociologists, anthropologists, economists and historians are also invited to submit papers. The types of papers we will consider include research reports, both qualitative and quantitative, methodology papers, theoretical papers and literature reviews. Clinical practice papers, opinion pieces and book reviews are also welcomed.

Midwifery has something unique and valuable to offer society in terms of our philosophical perspective and knowledge base. Our theories have been informal, because historically, they have often been based on experiential learning which has been passed on by role modelling and word of mouth. Much of this oral knowledge is still held by experienced midwives who are practising at an advanced level; often in community settings where the hierarchies and dominant theoretical frameworks hold less influence. Unless we can articulate the unique and valuable contribution that midwifery makes, in a robust, theoretical way, then our claim for separate disciplinary and professional status will falter. Midwifery theories describe, explain and make predictions about what midwives do, what we believe and what we value. Midwifery theories also tell us how and why the actions, attitudes, values and beliefs of midwives matters to the health and well being of women and babies. Being able to articulate midwifery theory and philosophy is valuable to practising midwives because theories provide the vision and the words that enable midwives to work with women and their families.

This is more than a scholarly exercise about securing our place in the academy: it is at the core of professional identity. Theory is important because midwifery as a discipline needs to mark its boundaries and develop its knowledge base within those boundaries. In many countries midwifery's history has been one of being taken over and subsumed within nursing and medicine. In the process we have had to take on the theoretical frameworks and language of these two disciplines. Whilst a discipline's knowledge base always involves some degree of overlap with other disciplines, midwifery needs to take care to let go of unhelpful concepts and frameworks that we have inherited from medicine and nursing. When we use the concepts and theoretical frameworks of other disciplines, our vision, our perspective and our practice is limited. Midwifery theories are urgently needed to identify and develop concepts and language that are unique to our discipline. We need unique midwifery theory because this helps midwives to have a clear and coherent professional identity which in turn helps us differentiate ourselves from other disciplines and take pride in our profession. Likewise when we take on the research methodologies that were developed by another discipline for their own purposes we may be missing an opportunity to modify or develop new research methodologies that help us to more clearly see the phenomena of interest in our own discipline.

The aim of writing this editorial has been to encourage papers about midwifery theory; particularly theories that are grounded in the practice of midwifery. The work of midwifery scholars needs to involve writing down the theoretical knowledge that is currently still in oral form. The scholarly work will also involve re-working, modifying and extending existing theories. New theories, new research designs and new research methods are all needed so that the unique knowledge base of our discipline can be known, taught and researched. As editor, I particularly welcome papers that are pushing at the boundaries of knowledge about women and birth and challenging existing knowledge and frameworks. I encourage others to embark upon this new journey with us.