Self-Reported Experiences of Midwives Working in the UK across Three Phases during COVID-19: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Maternity services cannot be postponed due to the nature of this service, however, the pandemic resulted in wide-ranging and significant changes to working practices and services. This paper aims to describe UK midwives’ experiences of working during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study forms part of a larger multiple phase research project using a cross-sectional design based on an online survey. The online survey used validated psychometric tools to measure work-related quality of life, wellbeing, coping, and burnout as well as open-ended questions to further understand the experiences of staff working during the pandemic. This paper reports the qualitative data collected from the open-ended questions. The qualitative data were subjected to thematic analysis and the four main themes that emerged were ‘relentless stress/pressure’, ‘reconfiguration of services’, ‘protection of self and others’, and ‘workforce challenges’. The key conclusions were that midwives experienced a reduction in quality of working life and significant stress throughout the pandemic due to a range of factors including staffing shortages, restrictions placed on women’s partners, changes to services and management support, all of which compounded workforce pressures that existed prior to the pandemic. This research recommends consultation of front-line midwives in relation to possible changes in practice and workforce planning in preparation for crises such as a pandemic and to ensure equitable and supportive management with access to practical and psychological support.

Stress perception, coping behaviors and work-privacy conflict of student midwives in times of COVID-19 pandemic: the “Healthy MidStudents” study in Germany

“…Another study from the Netherlands and Belgium revealed that having children was found to be positively related to students’ depression level [ 44 ]. Lastly, a qualitative study from United Kingdom demonstrated higher stress among midwives due to compounded workforce pressures during COVID-19 pandemic such as staffing shortages but also difficulties in maintaining a work-life balance [ 72 ].…”

Changing Responses during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Comparison of Psychological Wellbeing and Work-Related Quality of Life of UK Health and Social Care Workers

“…The results of the overarching study, specifically Phase 6, will be used to expand recommendations that could inform or update policies and procedures for HSC employers to help promote safe staffing, increase wellbeing, reduce burnout and improve the quality of working life. Previous publications from the wider HSC workforce study have explored earlier phases of the project [44][45][46][47], the impact on social care and social workers [48][49][50], the 'clapping for carers' initiative [51], the impact on health care professionals [52,53] and a comparison of UK social care workers with those in Japan [54], with future research regarding safe staffing levels currently under review.…”

Working conditions for healthcare workers at a Swedish university hospital infectious disease department during the COVID-19 pandemic: barriers and facilitators to maintaining employee wellbeing

“…Recently, a mixed-methods study on midwives in the United Kingdom showed changes in working practices resulting in increased job demands during the pandemic. It also suggested job resources that could help mitigate the negative health consequences on the midwives, such as ensuring adequate access to personal protective equipment as well as the importance of being valued and listened to in the workplace ( McGrory et al, 2022 ).…”