WORKING AS A COORDINATOR MIDWIFE IN A TERTIARY ...

solutions – which offers resonance within my study. This is especially so in relation to
the coordinators in my study who reveal their desire to provide midwifery focused
solutions for women in the tertiary setting. Just as Irene remarks ‘I am not ‘just’ a
midwife, I am a midwife and that is my expertise’, so Earl, who has a background
working as an ‘acting charge midwife’, remarks “just because I work in a hospital does
not mean that I don’t have a midwifery focus or that I am medicalised” (Isa et al, 2002, p.
41).
Skinner (2005) writes that the hospital midwife “might sit” on the seat of a birth stool
which represents “the demands of the institution” (p.261). The challenges for midwives
finding they were working ‘with institution’ rather than ‘with women’ has also been
researched by Hunter (2005). Within my study, the demands of the institution were very
real for the coordinator midwives; however they remained focused on the mother and
baby’s journey and their wellbeing. Perhaps they also recognised the challenge for an
institution to plan ahead for the unknown busyness of any particular shift.
Research is available regarding supporting the emotional wellbeing of midwives (Weil,
2008; Lennox, Skinner & Foureur, 2008; Smythe & Young, 2008). Coordinators do not
explicitly refer to their needs for professional support in my study. Nevertheless, it would
seem that there is a call within this study for strategies to support coordinators.
The coordinators’ concealment of their true feelings revealed in my study reflects the
research by John and Parsons (2006) and Hunter (2001; 2004; 2005). Coordinators spent
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