Abstract
Midwives have a pivotal role in screening for risk factors for mental illness and
psychosocial vulnerabilities in women during the perinatal period. They also have
a key responsibility to provide women with the appropriate resources to support their
mental wellbeing. Midwives can lack confidence and/or feelings of competence regarding
these skills.
Care of women in the context of their perinatal mental health is a core midwifery
skill that deserves practical learning during pre-registration education, just as
the more ‘hands on’ skills such as abdominal palpation, labour and birth support or
newborn examination. However, there is limited opportunity for students to gain clinical
placement experiences that are specific to perinatal mental health (PMH).
This discussion paper describes an innovative teaching and learning project that aimed
to improve confidence in students’ ability to conduct screening, support, and referral
of women experiencing mental ill health. The project involved the development of an
Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) and audio visual resources to support
learning and teaching and clinical placement. Feedback was collected to inform the
refinement of the first OSCE, and to assist in the design of the audio visual resources
that are now displayed publicly on the Australian College of Midwives website at https://www.midwives.org.au/Web/Web/Professional-Development/Resources.aspx?hkey=12c2360e-d8b9-4286-8d0a-50aeaeca9702.
Keywords
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References
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- Knowledge, confidence, skills, and practices among midwives in the republic of Ireland in relation to perinatal mental health care: The mind mother’s study.Midwifery. 2018; 64: 29-37
Article info
Publication history
Published online: November 29, 2022
Accepted:
November 14,
2022
Received in revised form:
October 31,
2022
Received:
September 29,
2022
Publication stage
In Press Corrected ProofIdentification
Copyright
© 2022 Australian College of Midwives. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
