May’s Search Pack of the Month brings together research that recognises the extraordinary strength of midwives around the world, and the immense pressures that they continue to face.
May 5 marks International Day of the Midwife (IDM), offering a global opportunity to celebrate the brilliance, knowledge and commitment of midwives everywhere. It’s also a chance to acknowledge the challenges of the profession, and renew calls for meaningful investment into maternity care services, for the benefit of professionals and families everywhere.
The theme of IDM 2026 is One Million More Midwives, aligning with the ongoing campaign from the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) that highlights the global shortage of midwives, currently estimated to be at around 980,000. The ICM state:
“We want this theme to be more than just a slogan. It is a shared demand, grounded in evidence and driven by the realities midwives and women face every day”.
At a time when staff shortages, burnout and rising demand are affecting maternity services globally, this call feels more urgent than ever.
Our Search Pack of the Month for May highlights the impact of these challenges on midwives. M91: Coping and Resilience in Midwifery brings together evidence exploring how midwives navigate the emotional, physical and professional demands of their work. The research highlights perseverance and adaptability, but also the impact of stress, trauma, injury and system pressures that often go unaddressed.
Midwifery is frequently framed as a vocation built on compassion and endurance. Whilst these qualities are deeply embedded into the profession, research reminds us that resilience is not an unlimited resource, and expecting individuals to cope without adequate support comes at a cost. Dr Sara Webb articulated this sentiment in the March 2021 Digest, responding to Kayleigh Darling’s article on building a better midwifery workplace culture:
“Midwifery is a very emotionally interactive profession… It takes a breadth of skills and resilience to provide the support and compassion we do to the women we care for. It is therefore not surprising that we sometimes have little left for our colleagues.
We are all guilty of sometimes forgetting where we have come from and how lacking in confidence we once were… We become experienced and confident but we must always remember we once weren’t.
I thank all authors who share their personal experiences of struggle and commend their strength and kindness as humans in doing so. As a profession we need to look after each other, not just the women and families we care for. Only then can we stand truly together”.
Sara highlights how resilience in midwifery is shaped by workplace cultures, peer support and leadership, emphasising that in a turbulent period for maternity services globally, midwives are better able to sustain resilience when they feel valued, supported and cared for, by each other, policymakers, employers, and the public.
This IDM, celebration and advocacy must be championed together. Recognising midwives’ resilience cannot replace the need for safe staffing levels and professional support. One Million More Midwives calls into question the sustainability of the midwifery profession, and the support needed by governments and policymakers to ensure midwives can provide high-quality care.
This IDM, MIDIRS is celebrating midwives everywhere, not for their ability to endure endlessly, but for their skill and humanity. Our Search Pack of the Month is now available, offering evidence that enables practitioners to better understand the realities of midwifery, and envision what meaningful support could look like in practice.
What are MIDIRS Search Packs?
Our Search Packs are pre-made literature searches on topics within maternity research. They contain a comprehensive bibliographic list of articles as well as article abstracts. You can find a list of all of our Search Packs and information on accessing them here. If you require a more specific search, our librarians are also on hand to provide bespoke literature searches, which can be ordered on our Products and Services page.
Take a look back at articles on the topic of coping and resilience that have featured in past editions of MIDIRS Midwifery Digest:
‘Resilience and stress management.’ Maggie Howell (September 2016)
The issue of stress is constantly hitting the headlines – from the increase of stress in the workplace to research highlighting the impact that stress can have on a physical, emotional and psychological level. This article will explore the stress-related issues faced by midwives and strategies to help them increase their resilience and ability to cope with the ever increasing levels of adversity.
‘Learning from the past and building a better future through the lens of a professional midwifery advocate; healing wounds from a decade of midwifery.’ Kayleigh Darling (March 2021)
The author reflects upon her experience of providing bereavement care as a student midwife and discusses psychological trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder among the midwifery workforce. The author draws upon her role as a Professional Midwifery Advocate and makes several suggestions to improve mental health supervision for all health care professionals, including the development of a service where health professionals are routinely offered help and a culture where resilience is not questioned.
‘Recovery from COVID-19: how do we manage and respond to problematic substance use in perinatal staff?’ Sally Pezaro, Karen Maher (December 2022)
Problematic substance use (PSU) in midwifery populations has been under-researched (Pezaro et al 2020). Yet substance use as a means of coping with work strain has continued to increase across a range of health professionals working throughout the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom (UK) (Gillen et al 2022). As we move towards post-pandemic functioning, the demands on perinatal services are not abating, with continued pressure on resourcing and staffing. Therefore, it is important to ascertain how to effectively manage and respond to PSU in perinatal staff populations for the safety and protection of both the public and the professionals themselves.
To read these papers in full, plus hundreds more midwifery-related articles, subscribe to MIDIRS and access our full MIC database, as well as our quarterly Digest.
