Introduction

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Introduction

The management of change is a difficult process that can go either way, not only can it consign innovation to the waste bin but also make a difference by altering existing practices. Midwifery itself has many areas which professionals and women would like to change; yet the process of change makes it very daunting. Midwives are in the best position to make significant contribution to the health of mothers and babies (Page, 1999) but unfortunately they have experienced a loss of power over the years and midwifery has become more medicalised, thus losing choice, continuity and control (Lewis, 1995).

However, only recently midwives have started to become aware of the need to keep themselves up-dated and be well informed in order to give the best possible care to women and their babies. Despite this, there are still practices, which are passed from one generation to the next without any question or objection. However, only recently midwives have been questioning practice, which is not research based, and are beginning to change static practices.

Maternity care must be ‘woman centered’ therefore concentrating in meeting the needs of the women in their care, this includes change of various practices. If the process of change is not mastered and implemented the profession is in danger of being left behind and ignored (Haynes, 1992)

So the aim of this essay is to briefly identify an area of clinical practice, which needs to be changed, analysing the forces for and against this change, and furthermore, management theories shall be used to devise a realistic strategy and tactics to implement this change.

There are many areas within midwifery practice that could be changed but the area of interest is parent education, especially when it concerns the non-English speaking Asian women. Existing research and anecdotal evidence suggests that Asian women are poor uptakers of parent education, but the underlying question remains for researchers is why is current parent education so alienating and unattractive that many of the Asian women do not attempt to access such services? (Pollard & Walker, 1995). Chouri (1994) suggests a reason for the failure of such service, is poor communication between users and midwives, which makes it difficult to tailor the services to clients needs. Another failure would be lack of cultural and religious understanding on behalf of health professionals. Instead of researchers attempting to explore the feeling and attitudes of Asian non-English speaking women they concentrate on stereotypical work (Rooke 1991, Hill 1999).

Parent education is not a new subject, but a growing interest within health professionals to deliver best pre-natal care as possible but Asian mothers’ access to parent education can be restricted by language and cultural diversity. Changing Childbirth (DOH, 1993) emphasises the need to provide a more woman centered approach to care. Providing such care presents a tremendous challenge for midwives caring for women who speak languages other than English (Hancock, 1994). By knowing about such obstacles health professionals can not continue to use the same strategies in providing such care but there is a need for improvement and change.