Sarah Norris
Swansea
I am Head of Midwifery and Associate Professor at Swansea University, South Wales. I am passionate about the midwife's role in supporting women to achieve a physiological birth. My research has focussed on midwifery students' learning experience, midwifery knowledge, mentorship and the experience of newly qualified midwives.
In this presentation, I propose a philosophical argument in support of intuitive knowledge as a dynamic resource for midwives in supporting women through physiological birth. Using the findings from an ethnographic study in an AMU, I set out a philosophical position which will argue that intuitive knowledge is projected as a “life-force” from the midwife to the woman to enhance her labour.
Polanyi (1966) asserted, “We can know more than we can tell”, calling this pre logical way of knowing tacit knowledge. Polanyi’s work was a challenge to the idea that value-free, science based knowledge is the only authoritative knowledge. This theory of tacit knowledge can explain the way that midwives express (or not) their use of their senses to detect the women’s progress, and the use of themselves in supporting women to progress in labour. Tacit knowing is based in physiology and the ability to recognise the overall picture of something, without necessarily being able to describe or make sense of the component parts.
Polanyi (1966) also refers to the “semantic aspect” of tacit knowing in relation to the sensory function of our hands: that we may learn to use tools or instruments to the extent we cease to be aware of our hands as an extension of ourselves. Polanyi’s theory is fundamental to the concept of perception and projection of self. I argue that tacit knowing can be projected, and the dimension of practice which the midwife cannot explain is transferred to the women in her care, reflecting her confidence and belief in a positive outcome. This appears to have an influence on the experience and progress of the woman in labour. In explaining how this could be so, Polanyi refers to the human body as “the ultimate instrument of all our external knowledge,” (1966,p16), so the midwife herself is the source of monitoring and augmentation of the woman’s labour rather than technology.
I will present evidence from field notes and data extracts to support my claim and invite comments and discussion.
Polanyi, K.(1966). The Tacit Dimension. Chicago. University of Chicago press.
