ABSTRACT
This birth centre (hereafter referred to as the Birth Centre) was intended to be a homely, community-based, freestanding facility that would provide midwifery care 24 hours a day, seven days a week for local residents and other women who preferred a low-intervention approach to birth. Initially the Birth Centre was managed along these lines, staffed by midwives skilled in supporting women through normal birth, and providing individualised and family-centred care. However, in 2005, three years after the Birth Centre had opened, a crisis situation was reported to one of the researchers by the Head of Midwifery. We were told that the midwives were not promoting the Birth Centre facility and were resisting the potential to move clinical practice forward. What had previously been described as ‘the jewel in the crown’ was fast becoming ‘a problem child.’
