@article{ref1,
title="Safeguarding children and public health: Midwives' responsibilities",
journal="Perspectives in public health",
year="2010",
author="Lazenbatt, Anne",
volume="130",
number="3",
pages="118-126",
abstract="Aim: Using a healthy settings framework, this study aims to compare and contrast how midwives working in either hospital or community settings are currently responding to the co-occurrence of domestic and child abuse; their perceived role and willingness to identify abuse; record keeping; reporting of suspected or definite cases of child abuse; and training received.Methods: A survey questionnaire was sent to 861 hospital and community midwives throughout Northern Ireland, which resulted in 488 midwives completing the questionnaire, a 57% response rate. Comparisons were made using descriptive statistics and cross-tabulation and the questionnaire was validated using exploratory factor analysis.Results: Community midwives reported receiving more training on domestic and child abuse. Although a high percentage of both hospital and community midwives acknowledged a link between domestic and child abuse, it was the community midwives who encountered more suspected and definite (p < 0.001) cases of child abuse. More community midwives reported being aware of the mechanisms for reporting child abuse. However, an important finding is that although 12% of community midwives encountered a 'definite' case of child abuse, only 2% reported the abuse, leaving a 10% gap between reporting and identifying definite cases of child abuse. Findings suggest that lack of education and training was a problem as only a quarter of hospital midwives reported to have received training on domestic violence and 40% on child abuse. This was significantly less than that received by community midwives, where the figures were 57% and 62%, respectively.Conclusion: Midwives need training on how to interact with abused mothers using non-coercive, supportive and empowering mechanisms. Many women may not spontaneously disclose the issues of child or domestic abuse in their lives, but often respond honestly to a sensitively asked question. This issue is important as only 13% of the sample actually asked a woman a direct question about domestic violence.<p />",
language="",
issn="1757-9139",
doi="10.1177/1757913909360467",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1757913909360467"
}