Validating midwifery professionals' scope of practice and competency: A multi-country study comparing national data to international standards.

BACKGROUND: There is a global shortage of midwives, whose services are essential to meet the healthcare needs of pregnant women and newborns. Evidence suggests that if enough midwives, trained and regulated to global standards, were deployed worldwide, maternal, and perinatal mortality would decline significantly. Health workforce planning estimates the number of midwives needed to achieve population coverage of midwifery interventions. However, to provide a valid measure of midwifery care coverage, an indicator must consider not only the raw number of midwives, but also their scope and competency. The tasks midwives are authorized to deliver and their competency to perform essential skills and behaviors provide crucial information for understanding the availability of safe, high-quality midwifery services. Without reliable estimates for an adequate midwifery workforce, progress toward ending preventable maternal and perinatal mortality will continue to be uneven. The International Labor Organization (ILO) and the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) suggest standards for midwifery scope of practice and competencies. This paper compares national midwifery regulations, scope, and competencies in three countries to the ILO and ICM standards to validate measures of midwife density. We also assess midwives' self-reported skills/behaviors from the ICM competencies and their acquisition. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We compared midwives' scope of practice in Argentina, Ghana, and India to the ILO Tasks and ICM Essential Competencies for Midwifery Practice. We compared midwives self-reported skills/behaviors with the ICM Competencies. Univariate and bivariate analysis was conducted to describe the association between midwives' skills and selected characteristics. National scopes of practice matched two ILO tasks in Argentina, four in India, and all in Ghana. National standards partially reflected ICM skills in Categories 2, 3, and 4 (pre-pregnancy and antenatal care; care during labor and birth; and ongoing care of women and newborns, respectively) in Argentina (range 11% to 67%), mostly in India (range 74% to 100%) and completely in Ghana (100% match). 1,266 midwives surveyed reported considerable variation in competency for skills and behaviors across ICM Category 2, 3, and 4. Most midwives reported matching skills and behaviors around labor and childbirth (Category 2). Higher proportions of midwives reported gaining basic skills through in-service training and on-job-experience than in pre-service training. CONCLUSION: Estimating the density of midwives needed for an adequate midwifery workforce capable of providing effective population coverage is predicated on a valid numerator. A reliable and valid count of midwives to meet population needs assumes that each midwife counted has the authority to exercise the same behaviors and reflects the ability to perform them with comparable competency. Our results demonstrate variation in midwifery scopes of practice and self-reported competencies in comparison to global standards that pose a threat to the reliability and validity of the numerator in measures of midwife density, and suggest the potential for expanded authorization and improved education and training to meet global reference standards for midwifery practice has not been fully realized. Although the universally recognized standard, this study demonstrates that the complex, composite descriptions of skills and behaviors in the ICM competencies make them difficult to use as benchmark measures with any precision, as they are not defined or structured to serve as valid measures for assessing workforce competency. A simplified, content-validated measurement system is needed to facilitate evaluation of the competency of the midwifery workforce.

Authorization of midwives to perform basic emergency obstetric and newborn care signal functions in Argentina, Ghana, and India: A multi-country validation study of a key global maternal and newborn health indicator.

BACKGROUND: Midwives' authorization to deliver the seven basic emergency obstetric and newborn care (BEmONC) functions is a core policy indicator in global monitoring frameworks, yet little evidence supports whether such data are captured accurately, or whether authorization demonstrates convergence with midwives' skills and actual provision of services. In this study, we aimed to validate the data reported in global monitoring frameworks (criterion validity) and to determine whether a measure of authorization is a valid indicator for BEmONC availability (construct validity). METHODS: We conducted a validation study in Argentina, Ghana, and India. To assess accuracy of the reported data on midwives' authorization to provide BEmONC services, we reviewed national regulatory documents and compared with reported country-specific data in Countdown to 2030 and the World Health Organization Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health Policy Survey. To assess whether authorization demonstrates convergent validity with midwives' skills, training, and performance of BEmONC signal functions, we surveyed 1257 midwives/midwifery professionals and assessed variance. RESULTS: We detected discrepancies between data reported in the global monitoring frameworks and the national regulatory framework in all three countries. We found wide variations between midwives' authorization to perform signal functions and their self-reported skills and actual performance within the past 90 days. The percentage of midwives who reported performing all signal functions for which they were authorized per country-specific regulations was 17% in Argentina, 23% in Ghana, and 31% in India. Additionally, midwives in all three countries reported performing some signal functions that the national regulations did not authorize. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest limitations in criterion and construct validity for this indicator in Argentina, Ghana, and India. Some signal functions such as assisted vaginal delivery may be obsolete based on current practice patterns. Findings suggest the need to re-examine the emergency interventions that should be included as BEmONC signal functions.

Measuring adequacy of the midwifery workforce using standards of competency and scope of work: Exploring the density and distribution of midwives in three low- and middle-income countries using cross-sectional and geospatial data.

BACKGROUND: A global midwifery shortage hampers the goal of ending preventable maternal/newborn mortality and stillbirths. Whether current measures of midwifery workforce adequacy are valid is unknown. We compare two measures of density and distribution of midwifery professionals to assess their consistency, and explore how incorporating midwifery scope, competency, and the adjusting reference population impacts this critical metric. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We collected a census of midwives employed in eligible facilities in our study settings, (422 in Ghana; 909 in India), assessed the number practicing within the scope of work for midwifery professionals defined in the International Labor Organization International Standard Classification of Occupations, and whether they reported possessing the ICM essential competencies for basic midwifery practice. We altered the numerator, iteratively narrowing it from a simple count to include data on scope of practice and competency and reported changes in value. We altered the denominator by calculating the number of midwives per 10,000 total population, women of reproductive age, pregnancies, and births and explored variation in the indicator. Across four districts in Ghana, density of midwives decreased from 8.59/10,000 total population when counting midwives from facility staffing rosters to 1.30/10,000 total population when including only fully competent midwives by the ICM standard. In India, no midwives met the standard, thus the midwifery density of 1.37/10,000 total population from staffing rosters reduced to 0.00 considering competency. Changing the denominator to births vastly altered subnational measures, ranging from ~1700% change in Tolon to ~8700% in Thiruvallur. CONCLUSION: Our study shows that varying underlying parameters significantly affects the value of the estimate. Factoring in competency greatly impacts the effective coverage of midwifery professionals. Disproportionate differences were noted when need was estimated based on total population versus births. Future research should compare various estimates of midwifery density to health system process and outcome measures.

Understanding quality of contraceptive counseling in the CHARM2 gender-equity focused family planning intervention: Findings from a cluster randomized controlled trial among couples in rural India.

OBJECTIVES: The CHARM2 (Counseling Husbands and wives to Achieve Reproductive Health and Marital Equity) intervention engages health care providers to deliver gender-equity and family planning sessions to couples using a person-centered shared decision-making approach for contraception counseling. We previously showed that the intervention improved contraceptive use at 9-month follow-up. We sought to assess whether the intervention was further associated with the quality of care reported by participants and whether the quality of care reported mediated the effect of the intervention on contraceptive use. STUDY DESIGN: This is a planned secondary analysis of the effect of the CHARM2 intervention on 1201 married couples in rural Maharashtra, India in a cluster randomized controlled trial completed between 2018 and 2020. We assessed the effect of CHARM2 on perceived quality of care as measured by the Interpersonal Quality of Family Planning (IQFP) scale using a difference-in-differences linear regression approach including a mixed-effects model with nested random effects to account for clustering. We assessed whether the association between CHARM2 and modern contraceptive use was mediated by quality of family planning care. RESULTS: Intervention participants had higher mean IQFP scores than control participants at 9-month follow-up (intervention 3.2, SD 0.6 vs. control 2.3 mean, SD 0.9, p < 0.001). The quality of care reported mediated the effect of the intervention on contraceptive use (indirect effect coefficient 0.29, 95% CI 0.07-0.50). CONCLUSION: Family planning interventions such as CHARM2, which utilize person-centered shared decision-making contraceptive counseling approaches improve women's perceived quality of care. Effects on quality of care mediate observed effects of the intervention on contraceptive use. IMPLICATIONS: Contraceptive interventions should focus on improving person-centered outcomes, such as quality of care, rather than contraceptive use targets. By focusing on improving person-centered care, interventions will improve contraceptive use among those who desire a method while meeting the holistic reproductive health needs of clients and couples.

Effects of a health care provider intervention in reduction of sexual risk and related outcomes in economically marginal communities in Mumbai, India.

BACKGROUND: The present study assessed the effectiveness of a brief narrative intervention implemented by trained biomedical and Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha, Homeopathy (AYUSH) providers from three low-income communities in Mumbai, India. METHODS: A quasi-experimental research design compared attitudinal and behavioural changes among a cohort of 554 patients presenting gupt rog ('secret sexual illnesses') to biomedical and AYUSH providers who were trained in the narrative intervention model (NIM; referred to as 'narrative prevention counseling' in the intervention manual) with those providing standard care (untrained in NIM). Data were analysed using multivariate and longitudinal statistical models. RESULTS: Patients who received treatment for gupt rog from trained providers reported receiving a significantly higher number of services than those receiving services from untrained providers (mean 8.9 vs 7.6 services, respectively; P<0.001). In addition, a higher number of patients seeing the trained providers no longer had gupt rog problems than those seeing untrained providers (42% vs 25%, respectively; P<0.001). Patient-reported sex with a partner who was not the wife decreased significantly from baseline to follow-up for the entire sample but was significantly greater among patients receiving treatment from trained AYUSH providers (from 27% at baseline to 2% at follow up) compared with untrained providers (from 18% at baseline to 5% at follow up; P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The results support the effectiveness of brief narrative intervention in primary care settings for reducing sexual risk and associated vulnerabilities among married men.

Healing traditions and men's sexual health in Mumbai, India: the realities of practiced medicine in urban poor communities.

Men's pre- and extra-marital sexual behavior has been identified as the primary factor in the growing HIV/STI epidemic among both males and females in India. One major barrier to reaching men has been their underutilization of public health services, which has severely limited programs geared to prevention and early case identification. A significant number of men in India have strong culturally-based sexual health concerns, much of which are derived from "semen-loss" and deficiencies in sexual performance. This paper reports on an ongoing Indo-US project that has focused on men's concerns about sexual health problems and assesses the services provided by non-allopaths in three low-income communities in Mumbai. Findings indicate that the primary health resources for these men are private, community-based non-allopaths, who identify themselves as ayurvedic, unani and homeopathic providers. The paper suggests that the combination of strong culturally-based sexual health concerns and the presence of private non-allopaths who manage these problems present a window of opportunity for intervention programs to address the challenge of HIV/STI prevention and early case identification in India.