Midwives' views and knowledge on babies' sleeping practices on the postnatal ward.

Abstract

This study aimed to gain an understanding on the midwives' views and knowledge on baby sleeping practices, on the postnatal wards. The objectives of this study were to explore the midwives' views and knowledge on this aspect of baby care, to identify the midwives' awareness of existing policy/ies related to babies' sleeping practices, to explore the information midwives give to parents about baby sleeping practices and to identify current practices followed on the wards. To accomplish these objectives, a self-administered, structured questionnaire was utilised. Thirty Maltese midwives working in one of two postnatal wards, in the local general hospital were recruited by convenience sampling, all of whom consented to participate, obtaining a 100% response rate. Data was systematically analysed manually using descriptive statistics and content analysis. Findings showed that most of the midwives who participated in this study seemed to be knowledgeable on various aspects of baby sleeping practices. Nevertheless, some of the participating midwives had different views especially with regard to the back sleeping position where the fear of aspiration and choking still exists. Results also showed that midwives were able to provide parents with a wide range of information. Conversely, even though the participating midwives demonstrated broad knowledge on the subject, still certain practices followed on the wards are not up to current international recommendations. This may suggest a situation where midwives might not be practising what they recommend to parents, resulting in confusion for the latter. Additionally, some midwives seemed to be unaware of an existing policy on baby sleep positioning, whereas others had various misconceptions on what the policy actually states. Results obtained were discussed and compared to the similar studies presented in the literature review. In view of these findings some recommendations for practice, education and research were suggested. Recommendations include the need for monthly educational sessions to update midwives on new baby sleeping practices coupled with training programmes; the development of a ward policy encompassing various baby sleeping practices; repeating this study using a larger sample and a qualitative method of data collection to allow generalisability of the research findings, and investigating the views and knowledge of other health care professionals such as paediatricians.