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Background:

Midwifery is central in addressing maternal and newborn health. Social 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 social perspectives.

Methods:

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

Results:

Several social factors that affected quality midwifery care were identified; gender inequality, physical and emotional violence, lack of safety and security, the role of tradition and the importance of education. Gender inequality was a major barrier that affected Bangladeshi midwives possibilities to provide quality midwifery care both directly and indirectly.

Conclusion:

In this male dominated society, women are disadvantaged in relation to men and feel insecure due to violence, particularly in rural areas, which affect the provision of quality midwifery care. To improve this, it is necessary to pay attention to all barriers, specially gender inequality and traditional and religious beliefs and practice.

Clinical application:

This result can be useful to design effective strategies to improve quality midwifery care which can reduce maternal mortality in the future. The study suggests that further studies should evaluate the effects of education of women to reduce barriers and improve quality midwifery care.