A call for collaborative action: A participatory workshop to generate a heuristic framework of early research findings

Topic area: Central to respectful maternity care, is the right for women to make autonomous birthing decisions, even where those decisions are deemed ‘unconventional’ i.e. those that fall outside of recommendations and/or... [ view full abstract ]

Topic area: Central to respectful maternity care, is the right for women to make autonomous birthing decisions, even where those decisions are deemed ‘unconventional’ i.e. those that fall outside of recommendations and/or guidelines. However, evidence suggests women can face conflict when exerting their agency; decisions can be steered or coerced by maternity professionals in order to comply with local guidelines.  The findings of a recent meta-ethnography suggested that midwives were either ‘reluctantly accepting’ or ‘overtly facilitative’ of women’s unconventional birth choices.  Significant gaps persisted in the literature, which informed the research design of a unique empirical study ‘Practicing ‘outside of the box’ whilst within ‘the system’.  A feminist narrative inquiry of NHS midwives facilitating and supporting women’s unconventional birth choices in the UK.’ 

Description of research seeking collaboration: The purpose of this workshop is to bring together interested academics, practitioners and lay persons to explore the early data analysis findings; and to generate a knowledge transfer of research into practical suggestions of how the findings might be used.  Whilst knowledge exchange strategies are still in their infancy, this workshop will provide an opportunity for participants to creatively engage with research findings that are of relevance to midwifery practice. 

Discussion: The proposed workshop will consist of a 10-minute introduction to the research and an overview of the early findings.  Following this, participants will be separated into groups and will be provided with a vignette from the findings.  The researcher shall then give the participants two minutes to read the vignette. Following this, a series of ‘quick fire’ questions will be presented by the researcher, and the participants will have only a short amount of time to answer- writing on the sheets of paper.  The purpose of which is to generate participant’s initial responses, maximising honest feelings and reducing over analytical thought processes.  Questions such as what are your initial thoughts, feelings about this midwife?  How does it make you feel?  What does this tell us about the midwife? What is the most important aspect of the story?  What action could be taken?  If you could sum it up in one word, what would it be?  If you could describe this situation as a metaphor, what would it be?  At the end of this exercise, participants will have an opportunity to share their vignettes and answers with the wider group.  The researcher will then facilitate an open discussion regarding the issues that the vignettes pose.  The final exercise shall be a group exercise to develop ideas of how these findings could be used in practice and education. 

Conclusion: The proposed workshop provides academics, practitioners and laypersons to engage in research findings in a novel and creative way.  The benefits are two fold, for the participants, it may provide an alternative method of engaging with research. For the researcher, it will generate useful ideas of how the research findings could be used to benefit midwifery education and practice