ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the crucial but complex question of how to translate evid ence into practice. A tale related to me about midwives’ attendance at an Active Birth Workshop dem on strates some of the dif ficult ies in this area. The midwife was respons ible for training and de velopment and ran the workshops for three years in a row. The first year she had no trouble filling it, mostly with midwives already signed up to active birth as a philo sophy of care. The second year she got all those who were unsure about its merits but were curious after good feedback from the first workshop. The third year she had her own list of midwives she wanted to send but none of them were really inter ested. Eventually she booked two midwives who she thought would be really challenged by the event and filled the other places from external enquiries. At the end of the two days of intensive discussion and prac tical skill demonstration, she was inter ested to find out what impact the workshop would have on the two midwives. One was working on the birth suite the next day and she saw her at the end of the shift and asked whether she was able to apply any of the ideas. Without hesitation, the midwife replied, ‘Oh Sue, these women are not inter ested in active birth, positions and the like . . . they just want to come in and get their labours over as quickly as pos sible.’
