From Midwifery Competencies on Sexual Wellbeing to Teaching and Training Midwives on Sexuality

Abstract

All around the world, midwives are educated to assist women through the reproductive phase of their lives. Their curricula aim to enable women to be happy and healthy women, mothers, and partners before, during, and after pregnancy. Though modern society increasingly recognises sexual well-being as an intricate part of general health and well-being, midwifery schools struggle worldwide with integrating sexuality into their curriculum. This chapter offers the building blocks for easily integrating sexuality and sexual well-being, theoretically and practically, into existing midwifery curricula. It presents a tool for screening the current curriculum on sexuality-related topics already addressed, and it describes content for theoretical and practical lessons. It also connects content to existing international midwifery competence profiles and provides practical guidelines for identifying suitable midwifery tutors to teach sexuality and concrete examples for building practicals concerning sexuality within midwifery contexts. This chapter is a part of ‘Midwifery and Sexuality’, an open-access textbook published by Springer Nature, geared at midwives and related healthcare professionals. It provides an overview of the current scientific knowledge on sexuality and midwifery, presented in a practice-oriented way.