Respecting the woman’s
autonomy as a decision-
maker
Replacing exclusive or
codified language with
plain language that she
can understand
Avoid discouraging or
insensitive language
You must have/need/require
a caesarean section (or any
other procedure) or You are
not allowed to
Patient refused
SROM
PPH
APH
VBAC
Failed VBAC/ Induction
Poor maternal effort
Failure to progress
Terminate pregnancy (when
there is a terminal diagnosis)
Poor obstetric history/ high
risk
Painful contractions
I would recommend/ suggest/ advise caesarean
birth because… (discuss benefits, risks, and
alternatives of any other procedure)
She declined
Your waters have broken
Extra bleeding after childbirth
Extra bleeding during pregnancy
Vaginal birth after caesarean birth
Unsuccessful VBAC/ induction
Not finding it easy…
Slow labour
Compassionate induction
Medically complex
Strong contractions
Table 1. Recommendation for communication in midwifery services, avoiding medically complex language for
better patient understanding. Recommended by Mobbs, N., Williams, C., and Weeks, A. (2018).
Conclusion
Although the advantages of using medical terminology can aid and ease practitioner communication, being
especially useful in emergency situations, the majority of professional-woman communication should take
place without using medical jargon. Women find they have more positive birth experiences as a result of
patient-friendly language and feel more involved in their own care. Some feedback of the new communication
recommendations has been evaluated as difficult to implement, however all midwives and health professionals
should work hard to adapt their own communication to include such recommendations. Due to the nature
of the undergraduate midwifery programme, students learn from their mentors and may often copy certain
actions and communication that they have seen in placements. This could lead to negative communication
and medical jargon remaining in the new generation of trained midwives and the cycle continuing. To break
this cycle, it is important that student midwives are taught about the recommendations relating to improved
communication and work to include these as part of their own, and shared, practice.
References
Attanasio, L. and Kozhimannil, K. (2015). Patient-reported Communication Quality and Perceived
Discrimination in Maternity Care. Medical Care, 53(10), pp.863-871.
Benyamini, Y., Molcho, M., Dan, U., Gozlan, M. and Preis, H. (2017). Women’s attitudes towards the
medicalization of childbirth and their associations with planned and actual modes of birth. Women and Birth,
30(5), pp.424-430.
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