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Background:

Midwifery is central in addressing maternal and newborn health. Professional barriers may prevent midwives from providing midwifery care with quality, which in the end can lead to, besides poor maternal and newborn health, burnout and midwives leaving the profession. Midwifery students are placed in the intersection between theory and practice and their perspectives are vital when identifying these barriers in Bangladesh where the midwifery profession is newly established.

Aim:

To describe midwifery students’ perceptions on midwives realities in Bangladesh from a professional perspective.

Methods:

A qualitative design in which deductive focus group discussions were held with 67 participants and analyzed with qualitative content analysis.

Results:

In policy making level midwives have little role and they lack knowledge regarding their rights and limitations as midwives. Restrictions of practice limit midwives ability to show their skills leading to disrespect from clients and obstetricians. Shortage of medicine and equipment supply in hospitals and sub-centres, limits the possibilities to provide quality of care and give rise to distrust with midwives and clients.

Conclusion and clinical implication:

Professional barrier in midwifery service hampers the quality of midwifery care. It is important to take some initiative to prevent professional barrier such as absence from police dialogue, restriction from practice, and shortage of supply and equipment are the obstacle to providing quality of midwifery care. Study result can be used to overcome the professional barrier and can used as a base line data to conduct further research to identify public perception regarding midwives and midwifery profession.