WORKING AS A COORDINATOR MIDWIFE IN A TERTIARY ...

(2004) writes “the place of birth has the potential to shape the woman’s experience,
determining who is in control, and what interventions are available” (p.88). Irene reveals
her ‘knowing’ that a first encounter with a machine rather than a health practitioner who
has the skills to complete an initial assessment is inappropriate and unacceptable. As a
coordinator Irene is in the unique situation of being able to role model and teach her
midwifery knowledge to doctors as well as midwives. The philosophy of New Zealand
midwifery is the partnership model of care (New Zealand College of Midwives, 2005)
not a hierarchical power focused model which hospital systems can be identified with.
Irene’s focus in this story is the wellbeing of the woman and her baby. As a coordinator,
Irene understands the chasm of philosophy differences between a home birth and a
tertiary hospital birthing experience. Her decision to ‘leap in’ to this situation was to
safeguard the birth experience for the woman as best as she could and to support the
LMC until they discovered what the next vaginal examination revealed from the ‘hidden
darkness’ of the progress of labour.
When two worlds meet
This penultimate story reveals the profound influence knowledge and wisdom has on
Irene’s decision making when there is an emergency situation steeped in multiple layers
of complexity yet Irene still keeps the mother and her baby central to everything that
happens:
I was thinking about a story today when I came here, about two worlds meeting
each other and the coordinator in the middle. Two LMC midwives transferred a
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