Ansule Ilze, Fleming Valerie, Millere Inga
Riga Stradiņš University, Faculty of Public Health and Social Welfare, Study Program "Midwife", Latvia.
Women's Health, Liverpool John Moores University, England, UK.
Heliyon. 2024 Jun 8;10(12):e32504. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e32504. eCollection 2024 Jun 30.
For almost 20 years Latvia has been a member state of European Union. Accessible and constantly evolving information has led to a paradigm change in the woman - midwife relationship; nowadays, it should be horizontal - women's and her family orientated. The question is: how do the midwives perceive their professional identity, its core values, norms and beliefs in this new paradigm?
Three interview rounds with 20 midwives were performed. Highlighted themes were asked to be explained in the next round of interview in order to compare them with authors' thematic analysis and formulated pre - understandings.The method of thematic analysis was used in frame of a pilot study to understand how practising midwives describe their professional identity.Eleven themes emerged and were categorised in three larger themes: integral part of midwife's professional identity - courage, patience, ability to provide intimacy, flexibility and creativity, the most beautiful profession; desirable part - the ability to evaluate yourself, the ability to draw boundaries, tolerance and acceptance of diversity, "go with the flow" - ability to allow physiological processes to take place, hindrances - struggle with bureaucratic norms and paperwork, struggle with the finances/salary.
Within the present study midwives' voices have been conceptualised for the first time in Latvia. With the repeated reflection on their professional identity, midwives not only conceptualised it, but also let light shine on the shadowy side of its components.
近20年来，拉脱维亚一直是欧盟成员国。信息的可获取性和不断发展导致了助产士与产妇关系的范式转变；如今，这种关系应该是横向的，即以产妇及其家庭为导向。问题是：在这种新范式下，助产士如何看待自己的职业身份、其核心价值观、规范和信念？
对20名助产士进行了三轮访谈。要求在下一轮访谈中解释突出的主题，以便将其与作者的主题分析和既定的先入之见进行比较。在一项试点研究的框架内使用主题分析方法，以了解执业助产士如何描述他们的职业身份。出现了11个主题，并被归类为三个更大的主题：助产士职业身份的组成部分——勇气、耐心、提供亲密感的能力、灵活性和创造力，最美的职业；理想的部分——自我评估能力、划定界限的能力、对多样性的容忍和接受、“顺其自然”——允许生理过程发生的能力，阻碍——与官僚规范和文书工作的斗争，与财务/薪资的斗争。
在本研究中，拉脱维亚首次将助产士的声音概念化。通过对其职业身份的反复反思，助产士不仅对其进行了概念化，还揭示了其组成部分的阴暗面。
