Factors that enable midwives to stay in the profession : Why do midwives stay in midwifery?

Background: There is a global awareness regarding the challenges facing midwives to remain in the profession.

Aim: The aim of this study was to understand why Western Australian (WA) midwives chose to remain in the profession.

Methods: This study was undertaken using grounded theory (GT) methodology. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 midwives working in the clinical area. Participants were interviewed about why and how they remain in the midwifery profession. Data were collected from December 2017 to November 2018 and were generated through open-ended semi-structured interviews, together with memos and field notes. The interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed and interpreted with the guidance of Glaser and Strauss’ (1967) coding stages.

Ethical approval for this study was granted by the Human Research Ethics Committee at Edith Cowan University (record 18747) on 23 November 2017.

Findings: The core category derived from the data was labelled: ‘I love being a midwife; it’s who I am’. The contextual factors that underpin the core category are labelled: ‘My rosters provide me with good work–life balance’; ‘You never know what’s going to happen [but] I can deal with the bad days because the good days outweigh them’; ‘I like my practice environment’; ‘It’s a juggling act but the women’s appreciation is worth it’ and ‘By looking after myself I’m a good midwife’.

Bronfenbrenner’s (1997) theory was applied to the findings in the process of developing them into a middle-range theory of the phenomenon of interest.

Conclusion: The findings of this study provide new insights into workplace and personal factors that contribute to enabling midwives to remain in their profession. Although this study represents midwives in only one geographical context it will be of value to professional and health care leaders.