The Emotional and professional wellbeing of midwives: cross sectional survey in Lithuania

Abstract

Background: Midwife’s roles in Lithuania have gone through a significant transformation in past 25 years. Nowadays the midwife is an autonomous health care professional who is actively supporting women in physiological labour, participating in the care of pregnant women and newborns and providing consultations regarding family planning and the parenthood skills. Given the importance of the midwife, establishing and ensuring psychological wellbeing becomes an essential component of strategies to sustain healthy workforce and retain midwives in local practice. Aim of the study: to evaluate the emotional and professional wellbeing of midwives. Method: A cross-sectional descriptive study was undertaken with a convenience sample of 338 hospital midwives recruited were the midwives fro, across Lithuania. Emotional and professional midwifery wellbeing was evaluated via a survey combining the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI) and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21). The study was approved by the Regional Bioethics Committee at the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences. Findings: Midwives who were older than 45 years, worked in mixed shifts (day, afternoon and night) and were satisfied with their personal and professional life were less anxious, less stressed and less depressed. Midwives younger than 45 years old experienced greater levels of burnout both in personal and patient activities-related fields than older midwives. Patient-related burnout was less common among midwives with degree level university education. However, midwives who worked in mixed shifts statistically significantly experienced a greater work-induced burnout, more dissatisfaction with work-life balance and endured statistically significantly greater personal and patient activities-associated burnout. Conclusion: Social- demographic and work-related factors such as age, education, type of shift as well as life and work satisfaction[...].