The effect of organizational belonging and profession on cliniciansʼ attitudes toward supporting vaginal birth and interprofessional teamwork—a cross‐sectional study

Abstract

Introduction The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of organizational belonging and profession on clinicians' attitudes toward supporting vaginal birth and interprofessional teamwork in Swedish maternity care. Material and methods The study used a cross‐sectional design, with a web‐based survey sent to midwives, physicians and nurse assistants at five labor wards in Sweden. The survey consisted of two validated scales: the Swedish version of the Labor Culture Survey (S‐LCS), measuring attitudes toward supporting vaginal birth, and the Assessment of Collaborative Environments (ACE‐15), measuring attitudes toward interprofessional teamwork. Two‐way ANOVA was conducted to assess the main effect of and interaction effect between organizational belonging and profession for the different subscales of the S‐LCS and the ACE‐15, together with Tukey's honest significant difference post‐hoc analysis and partial eta squared to determine effect size. The relation between the subscales was assessed using the Pearson's correlation analysis. Results A total of 539 midwives, physicians and nurse assistants completed the survey. Organizational belonging significantly influenced attitudes toward supporting vaginal birth and interprofessional teamwork, with the largest effect for Positive team culture (F = 38.88, effect size = 0.25, p < 0.001). The effect of profession was strongest for the subscale Best practices (F = 59.43, effect size = 0.20, p < 0.001), with midwives being more supportive of strategies proposed to support vaginal birth than physicians and nurse assistants. A significant interaction effect was found for four of the subscales of the S‐LCS, with the strongest effect for items reflecting the Unpredictability of vaginal birth (F = 4.49, effect size = 0.07, p < 0.001). Labor ward culture (unit microculture) specifically related to supporting vaginal birth was strongly correlated to interprofessional teamwork (r = 0.598, p < 0.001). Conclusions In the current study, both organizational belonging and profession influenced attitudes toward supporting vaginal birth and interprofessional teamwork. Positive team culture was positively correlated to an organizational culture supportive of vaginal birth. Interventions to support vaginal births should include efforts to strengthen teamwork between professions, as well as considering women's values, preferences and informed choices.