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Background:

Midwifery is central in addressing maternal and newborn health. Social, economic and professional barriers prevent midwives from providing quality midwifery care, which in the end can lead to poor maternal and newborn health. The midwifery profession is under development in Bangladesh and midwifery teachers’ perspective on barriers towards quality midwifery care is vital to identify the barriers preventing quality midwifery care in this country.

Aim:

To describe midwifery teacher’s perceptions on midwives’ realities in Bangladesh from social, economic and professional perspectives.

Methods:

A qualitative deductive design in which three focus group discussions were held with 17 midwifery teachers in total. Data was analyzed with qualitative content analysis.

Results:

Social barriers hampering quality midwifery care include lack of female empowerment, gender inequality permeating education, child birth, workplaces and negative attitudes in society towards women. Low income, inadequate housing and unsafe accommodation are among economic barriers. Professionally, little opportunities to participate in policy dialogue, to raise midwives’ voices and contribute to decisions, little public awareness about the midwifery profession, heavy workload, inadequate staffing and workplace environments hamper quality care.

Conclusion and clinical application:

Quality maternal health depends on enhanced midwifery workforce. Minimizing the identified barriers may elevate the confidence level of midwives and enable them to provide evidence based up-to-date care freely and independently. Revising economic benefits for midwives and taking initiatives to establish separate midwifery education facilities countrywide is a good start. This thesis provides a platform for further research focusing on improvements in quality of midwifery care after the deployment of newly introduced midwifery cadre service in Bangladesh.