Cargando…

When Maintaining Relationships and Social Connectivity Matter: The Case of New Zealand Midwives and COVID-19

New Zealand’s response to COVID-19 was go hard and go early into Level 4 lockdown on 25(th) March 2020. This rapid response has resulted in low rates of infection and deaths. For New Zealand midwives, the sudden changes to how they work with women and families during pregnancy, birth and postnatally...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Crowther, Susan, Maude, Robyn, Bradford, Billie, Austin, Diana, Gilkison, Andrea, McAra-Couper, Judith, Krisjanous, Jayne
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8022771/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33869567
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2021.614017
_version_ 1783675002744209408
author Crowther, Susan
Maude, Robyn
Bradford, Billie
Austin, Diana
Gilkison, Andrea
McAra-Couper, Judith
Krisjanous, Jayne
author_facet Crowther, Susan
Maude, Robyn
Bradford, Billie
Austin, Diana
Gilkison, Andrea
McAra-Couper, Judith
Krisjanous, Jayne
author_sort Crowther, Susan
collection PubMed
description New Zealand’s response to COVID-19 was go hard and go early into Level 4 lockdown on 25(th) March 2020. This rapid response has resulted in low rates of infection and deaths. For New Zealand midwives, the sudden changes to how they work with women and families during pregnancy, birth and postnatally, especially in the community, required unprecedented innovation and adaptation. The volume of information coming from many different sources, and the speed with which it was changing and updating, added further stress to the delivery of a midwifery model of care underpinned by partnership, collaboration, informed choice, safety and relational continuity. Despite the uncertainties, midwives continued their care for women and their families across all settings. In the rapidly changing landscape of the pandemic, news media provided a real time account of midwives’ and families’ challenges and experiences. This article provides background and discussion of these events and reports on a content analysis of media reporting the impact on the maternity system in New Zealand during the initial surge of the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that the New Zealand midwife was a major influencer and initiator for relational care to occur uninterrupted at the frontline throughout the COVID-19 lockdown, despite the personal risk. The initial 5-week lockdown in March 2020 involved stringent restrictions requiring all New Zealanders, other than essential workers such as midwives, to remain at home. Midwives kept women, their families and communities central to the conversation throughout lockdown whilst juggling their concerns about keeping themselves and their own families safe. Insights gained from the media analysis suggest that despite the significant stress and upheaval experienced by midwives and wāhine/women, relational continuity facilitates quality and consistent care that honors women’s choices and cultural needs even during situations of national crisis.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8022771
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-80227712021-04-15 When Maintaining Relationships and Social Connectivity Matter: The Case of New Zealand Midwives and COVID-19 Crowther, Susan Maude, Robyn Bradford, Billie Austin, Diana Gilkison, Andrea McAra-Couper, Judith Krisjanous, Jayne Front Sociol Sociology New Zealand’s response to COVID-19 was go hard and go early into Level 4 lockdown on 25(th) March 2020. This rapid response has resulted in low rates of infection and deaths. For New Zealand midwives, the sudden changes to how they work with women and families during pregnancy, birth and postnatally, especially in the community, required unprecedented innovation and adaptation. The volume of information coming from many different sources, and the speed with which it was changing and updating, added further stress to the delivery of a midwifery model of care underpinned by partnership, collaboration, informed choice, safety and relational continuity. Despite the uncertainties, midwives continued their care for women and their families across all settings. In the rapidly changing landscape of the pandemic, news media provided a real time account of midwives’ and families’ challenges and experiences. This article provides background and discussion of these events and reports on a content analysis of media reporting the impact on the maternity system in New Zealand during the initial surge of the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that the New Zealand midwife was a major influencer and initiator for relational care to occur uninterrupted at the frontline throughout the COVID-19 lockdown, despite the personal risk. The initial 5-week lockdown in March 2020 involved stringent restrictions requiring all New Zealanders, other than essential workers such as midwives, to remain at home. Midwives kept women, their families and communities central to the conversation throughout lockdown whilst juggling their concerns about keeping themselves and their own families safe. Insights gained from the media analysis suggest that despite the significant stress and upheaval experienced by midwives and wāhine/women, relational continuity facilitates quality and consistent care that honors women’s choices and cultural needs even during situations of national crisis. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-03-16 /pmc/articles/PMC8022771/ /pubmed/33869567 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2021.614017 Text en Copyright © 2021 Crowther, Maude, Bradford, Austin, Gilkison, McAra-Couper and Krisjanous. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Sociology
Crowther, Susan
Maude, Robyn
Bradford, Billie
Austin, Diana
Gilkison, Andrea
McAra-Couper, Judith
Krisjanous, Jayne
When Maintaining Relationships and Social Connectivity Matter: The Case of New Zealand Midwives and COVID-19
title When Maintaining Relationships and Social Connectivity Matter: The Case of New Zealand Midwives and COVID-19
title_full When Maintaining Relationships and Social Connectivity Matter: The Case of New Zealand Midwives and COVID-19
title_fullStr When Maintaining Relationships and Social Connectivity Matter: The Case of New Zealand Midwives and COVID-19
title_full_unstemmed When Maintaining Relationships and Social Connectivity Matter: The Case of New Zealand Midwives and COVID-19
title_short When Maintaining Relationships and Social Connectivity Matter: The Case of New Zealand Midwives and COVID-19
title_sort when maintaining relationships and social connectivity matter: the case of new zealand midwives and covid-19
topic Sociology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8022771/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33869567
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2021.614017
work_keys_str_mv AT crowthersusan whenmaintainingrelationshipsandsocialconnectivitymatterthecaseofnewzealandmidwivesandcovid19
AT mauderobyn whenmaintainingrelationshipsandsocialconnectivitymatterthecaseofnewzealandmidwivesandcovid19
AT bradfordbillie whenmaintainingrelationshipsandsocialconnectivitymatterthecaseofnewzealandmidwivesandcovid19
AT austindiana whenmaintainingrelationshipsandsocialconnectivitymatterthecaseofnewzealandmidwivesandcovid19
AT gilkisonandrea whenmaintainingrelationshipsandsocialconnectivitymatterthecaseofnewzealandmidwivesandcovid19
AT mcaracouperjudith whenmaintainingrelationshipsandsocialconnectivitymatterthecaseofnewzealandmidwivesandcovid19
AT krisjanousjayne whenmaintainingrelationshipsandsocialconnectivitymatterthecaseofnewzealandmidwivesandcovid19