Hand on or Hands Off the Perineum? a Reflective Essay

Reflection can be defined as “a process of reviewing an experience of practice in order to describe, analyse and evaluate and so inform learning from practice.”(Reid, 1993) It is an important factor when working within any health profession and midwifery is certainly no exception. Schon (1991) defines a reflective practitioner as “someone who learns by reflecting on current experience and applies that learning to future practice.” Reflection allows midwives to grow and develop professionally as well as personally (Kirkham, 1994) and can guide her into moulding her sphere practice in a positive way to benefit the women she is caring for (Church & Raynor, 2000). It also allows midwives to continue with lifelong learning and put theory to practise (mayes pp 1201-1202).

However being a reflective practitioner is learned skill and Rayner (2005, p.154) states that developing reflective skills is not easy but once mastered have a lot of benefits on the midwives ability to make informed decisions. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC, 2004) state that all midwives need to provide evidence on their continuous learning, which includes reflecting on their practice so that they can link theory with experience to create better care towards women.

The NMC code (2008) states that “you must deliver care based on the best available evidence or best practice.” Which suggests that midwife’s need to find a balance in using the best available evidence as well reflective learning to gain the best possible outcome for the women (Raynor D., Marshall E. & Sullivan A. 2005). Schon (1991, p.12) uses a metaphor to describe how professionals take into account professional issues: “High ground” uses manageable issues which can be solved by applying evidence based research and theory. For example when administering an injection, a midwife could read the most up to date evidence on what different areas are available on the body for administration for that individual women. “Swampy