Compassion as a powerful intervention: How the interactions between women, midwives and maternity services influence women’s childbirth experiences and subsequent trauma

Abstract

This article combines work from two separate PhD research studies by Dr Jenny Patterson and Dr Diane Ménage. These studies explored, from different perspectives, how the nature of interactions between midwives and women may contribute to, or prevent, trauma. The findings are presented and discussed. Jenny and Diane argue that their joint findings add new insights and show that the compassion shown during interactions between midwives and women may be key to preventing experiences becoming traumatic for women and midwives. They uphold compassion as a vital human connection in midwifery care and the workplace culture as key to sustaining it.