Florence W. L. HAU
Abstract
With an increase of medical involvement in maternity care during the past few decades, the independent role of midwife has largely been eroded. Since 1995, midwives in Hong Kong have started to initiate clinical projects to re-establish independent practice. Among these projects, one was the setting up of a midwife clinic. As the midwife teachers were responsible for teaching the learners, they had also established a "Teaching Midwife Clinic", with the intention to teach student midwives the art of caring for normal pregnant women. Thereafter, multiple sources of evaluation data were obtained including those by pregnant women, by the students and through a medical record review system. The results demonstrate that midwives could provide safe and satisfying care for pregnant women. At the same time, the teaching clinic served as a teaching and practicing venue for the teachers and students. Most importantly, the students were inspired by the independent role that a midwife could undertake in the provision of care to pregnant women.
Key words: Antenatal care, midwives clinic, midwives' role