New research from Associate Professor Laura Whitburn highlights the critical, and often overlooked, role midwives play in shaping women’s experiences of labour pain, and the system pressures that constrain this work.
Published in Sexual & Reproductive Healthcare, the study explores how Australian midwives support women to work with labour pain and the factors that limit their ability to practise in line with their professional philosophy.
“Midwives don’t just ‘manage pain’,” Associate Professor Whitburn explains. “They continuously shape the labour environment through their presence, language and relational support. These moment-to-moment interactions can profoundly influence how pain is interpreted, tolerated and experienced.”
The findings show that while midwives are skilled in using communication, safe language and emotional presence to support women in labour, they are often prevented from doing so due to system-level constraints.
This misalignment has consequences not only for women’s birth experiences, but also for midwives’ professional wellbeing and sustainability.
“These findings help explain why improving maternity care isn’t just about new technologies or interventions,” Associate Professor Whitburn says. “It’s about creating systems that allow midwives to practise the kind of relational, person-centred care we know supports both physiological birth and psychological safety.”
The research has direct implications for midwifery education, workforce retention and maternity service design, offering a low-cost, scalable pathway to improving birth experiences and reducing trauma.
