An examination of the historical context of interprofessional collaboration in Dutch obstetrical care

Abstract

Collaboration between different groups of health care professionals is often rooted in a long and often difficult history. This history can exert a strong influence on how professionals collaborate and historical tensions can contribute to problems in contemporary practice. However, literature about interprofessional collaboration often ignores the historical underpinnings of collaboration. In this paper, the historical development of interprofessional collaboration between obstetricians and midwives within the setting of Dutch obstetrical care is explored using a review of Dutch and English literature for documents explicitly or implicitly describing the historical development of this collaboration. This literature delineates the establishment of professional boundaries and the formalization of the collaboration between the two professions. It also details the history of physician domination over the midwives both in midwifery practice and education and the relatively recent reversal of this situation. Moreover, the shift in collaborative partner from general practitioner to obstetrician and its effect on collaboration is examined. Insight into the historical foundations of Dutch maternity care collaboration may allow us to understand the origins, and thus formulate possible solutions, for contemporary problems within this collaboration.

Clinicians’ views of factors of importance for improving the rate of VBAC (vaginal birth after caesarean section): a qualitative study from countries with high VBAC rates

“…The 19th-century decline in maternal mortality largely resulted from improvements in obstetric care, but was also helped along by the national health strategy of giving midwives and doctors complementary roles in maternity care [ 22 ]. A similar development in the Netherlands was the introduction of the ‘law of medical practice’ in 1865, where for the first time, responsibilities were formally divided between doctors and midwives for pathological and physiological labour, respectively [ 23 , 24 ]. Could these clear professional roles have an impact on the current low VABC rates?…”

Complex social intervention for multidisciplinary teams to improve patient referrals in obstetrical care: protocol for a stepped wedge study design

“…Risk selection, based on a standard list of indications to consult or refer women to a higher echelon, forms the basis of this system. 24 …”

“…In these hospitals, care can also be provided for more complex and acute cases, including (suspected) preterm births before 32 weeks of gestation. 24 25 Besides clinical relevance, there are elective reasons for referring women from primary to secondary care, such as analgesia during childbirth. A consequence of this set-up is that almost 50% of all pregnant women in the Netherlands are referred from primary to secondary or tertiary obstetrical care during pregnancy or childbirth.…”

“…It is a multicentre study in a complex setting with multiple care providers and a high patient referral rate between echelons. 24 25 We aim to study the effect of the intervention on adverse patient outcomes using a stepped wedge design. In addition, secondary outcome measures from professional and patient levels are included.…”

Editorial: Interprofessional education and collaboration: the need for a socio-historical framing

“…Recently, one of us explored the continuing influence of Florence Nightingale -the nineteenth century founder of modern, western nursing whose role in developing organizational structures for nursing may have inadvertently sown the seeds of the adversarial relationship between medicine and nursing (MacMillan, 2012). The nature of this relationship was effectively described by Stein (1967) in his ''doctor-nurse game'', which went on to be the subject of numerous papers (e.g. Keddy, Jones, Burton, & Rogers, 1986;Reeves, Nelson, & Zwarenstein, 2008).…”