Why Learn About Collaboration Through Maternity Cases?
There are 3 reasons why we use maternity cases to provide instruction on person-centred care and interprofessional competencies:
- Perinatal health care decisions are often preference-sensitive. Decisions are driven by cultural beliefs and values, both for people and for providers. In maternity care, the term “patient” has a broad meaning that is difficult to define. At various points, the focus of care is on the pregnant person, the baby, or both. The family, surrogate, or significant other(s) can all, and often do, contribute to decision making about care. The family has autonomy of decision making for their unborn baby and for their newborn. Sometimes this creates ethical dilemmas for the care provider(s). The parent or mother is more than a vessel for the baby, and their desire for bodily integrity or parental sovereignty occasionally clashes with a provider’s perceived best interest of the baby.
- Multi-disciplinary teamwork in maternity care is crucial to comprehensive, high-quality care. Midwives, family physicians, obstetricians, pediatricians, nurses, physiotherapists, audiologists, and genetic counsellors receive independent education and training in maternal-newborn care. As a result, these care providers often practice without a thorough understanding or awareness of each other's knowledge, skills, and scope of practice, or how, why, and when they will engage in interprofessional practice.
- Patient experience is related to long-term physical and mental health outcomes, as well as family adjustment. People report that lack of information and inability to participate in decision making around their maternity care makes them feel disrespected and helpless (5, 6). Some people experience the lack of autonomy and loss of control over bodily decisions as being traumatic (7). Through shared decision making, maternal and infant health is improved, and the personal capacity to assume the parental role is enhanced.
The video on the next page models a person-centred discussion between prospective parents and a health care provider as they decide about one maternity care option.