ABSTRACT
Midwives provide maternity care for women and their families. In the New Zealand (NZ) context, a midwife is responsible for the provision of care to a woman from conception until 6 weeks after the baby is born. Midwifery care relies heavily on personal one-to-one communication and physically “being there.” Some would argue that e-health is “dangerous nonsense” (Coddington, 2000) and there is no place for computers and the Internet in the midwifery practice environment; after all, being a midwife means “being with woman” not “being with computer.” However, both health consumers and midwives are increasingly accessing health information and resources via the Internet, which is bound to have implications for midwifery practice, and how midwives utilize the Internet. This chapter discusses the results of a web-based survey that questioned NZ midwives about their use of Internet resources. The study sought to find out what resources midwives used and wanted to be developed, and the barriers to use of the Internet. The study also aimed to discover how consumers’ use of the Internet affected midwifery practice and how midwives felt about it.
