Women-Centred but not Women-Friendly: Understanding Student Attrition in the Ontario Midwifery Education Programme

Abstract

In analysing the reasons for high attrition among midwifery students enrolled in the Ontario Midwifery Education Programme, we examined how the challenges of maintaining work-life balance among practising midwives impacts students' decisions to stay or withdraw from the programme. The content analysis of the written responses from a self-administered online delivered survey revealed that many students drawn to the profession become disillusioned during their studies. Observing the difficulties that practising midwives face in trying to combine care for their clients with care for their families, students perceive midwifery as a profession that is women-friendly only in relation to clients and not in relation to the practising midwives themselves. We suggest that the caring dilemma of midwifery impacts the neophytes to the profession. We contend that a change in structural organization of work would likely improve retention among student midwives. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.