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Advancing Universal Midwifery Care - HEA00167I

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  • Department: Health Sciences
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: I
  • Academic year of delivery: 2023-24
    • See module specification for other years: 2024-25

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Semester 1 2023-24

Module aims

Note: This document uses the word 'women’ throughout. This should be taken to include people who do not identify as women but are pregnant or who have given birth.

  • Advance a rigorous, evidence-based understanding of universal care for women and families during the childbearing period.

  • Critically analyse the midwife’s role providing universal care for women and families within the childbearing period, including:

    • public health, health promotion and health protection

    • assessment, screening and care planning

    • optimising normal physiological processes

    • working to promote positive outcomes and prevent complications.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students will be able to:

  1. Analyse and evaluate the evidence base for universal care for women and families during the childbearing period.

  2. Analyse and evaluate the midwife’s role providing universal care for women and families within the childbearing period, with a focus on:

    1. public health, health promotion and health protection

    2. assessment, screening and care planning

    3. optimising normal physiological processes

    4. working to promote positive outcomes and prevent complications.

  3. Analyse and evaluate evidence aligned to the UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative (BFI) topics mapped to this module.

  4. Analyse and evaluate evidence, and implement ethical frameworks to support informed decision making, and to strengthen women’s capabilities to care for themselves and their newborn infants

Module content

Content includes: public health across the life course; health and social inequalities and their determinants; identification, analysis and interpretation of research evidence and local, national, and international data and reports; promoting and informing best midwifery policy and practice; vulnerability regarding physical, psychological, social, cultural, or spiritual circumstances; clinical skills (including simulation); supporting women’s evidence-informed decision-making; advocacy, leadership and escalation of concerns; ethical frameworks; rights based approaches; themes within UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative (BFI) University Standards mapped to this module including applying theory to practice to support infant feeding choices; academic & library skills - accessing quality sources of data and statistics.

Please also see detailed mapping of this module content to NMC (2019) Standards of proficiency for midwives for the programme.

Indicative assessment

Task % of module mark
Oral presentation/seminar/exam 100

Special assessment rules

Non-compensatable

Indicative reassessment

Task % of module mark
Oral presentation/seminar/exam 100

Module feedback

Written feedback will be provided on the standard proforma within the timescale specified in the programme handbook.

Indicative reading

Bowden, J. and Manning, V. (Eds). (2016). Health promotion in midwifery. (3rd ed). Florida: CRC Press.

Brown, A. (2021). Better births: the midwife 'with woman'. (1st ed). Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.

Chatfield, T. (2020). Think critically. London: SAGE.

Clarke, E. (2015). Law and ethics for midwifery. Abingdon: Routledge.

Cottrell, S. (2017). Critical thinking skills: effective analysis, argument and reflection. (3rd ed). London: Palgrave.

Crowther, S. & Hall, J. (Eds).(2018). Spirituality and childbirth. Abingdon: Routledge.

Davies, L. and Deery, R. (Eds). (2013). Nutrition in pregnancy and childbirth. Abingdon: Routledge.

Hill, M. (2019). Give birth like a feminist. Your body. Your baby. Your choices. HQ.

Hubley, J., Copeman, J. and Woodall, J. (2021). Practical health promotion. (3rd ed). Medford MA: Polity Press.

Jones, S. R. (2020). Ethics in midwifery. (2nd ed). Edinburgh: Elsevier.

NHS England. (2022). The equality and health inequalities hub. [Online]. Available at: https://www.england.nhs.uk/about/equality/equality-hub/ [Accessed 11 March 2022].

NHS England. (2022). Maternity and breastfeeding. [Online]. Available from: https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/maternity-and-breastfeeding/ [Accessed 11 March 2022].

Office for National Statistics. (2022). Birth characteristics in England and Wales 2020. [Online]. Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/livebirths/bulletins/birthcharacteristicsinenglandandwales/2020 [Accessed 11 March 2022].

Palmer, G. (2016). Why the politics of breastfeeding matter. London: Pinter & Martin.

Pollard, M. (2018). Evidence-based care for breastfeeding mothers. (2nd ed). Abingdon: Routledge.

Squire, C. (Ed). (2017). The social context of birth. (3rd ed). London: Routledge.

UK Health Security Agency. (2022). UK Health Security Agency. [Online]. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/uk-health-security-agency [Accessed 11 March 2022].

UNICEF UK. (2019). UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative Theory of change. [Online]. Available from: https://www.unicef.org.uk/babyfriendly/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/04/Baby-Friendly-Initiative-Theory-of-Change.pdf [Accessed 11 March 2022].

Wickham, S. (2018). Inducing labour: Making informed decisions (2nd ed) Avebury: Birthmoon Creations.

Wickham, S. (2021). In your own time. How Western medicine controls the start of labour and why this needs to stop. Avebury: Birthmoon Creations.

Wills, J. (2022). Foundations for health promotion. (5th ed). London: SAGE.


The information on this page is indicative of the module that is currently on offer. The University constantly explores ways to enhance and improve its degree programmes and therefore reserves the right to make variations to the content and method of delivery of modules, and to discontinue modules, if such action is reasonably considered to be necessary. In some instances it may be appropriate for the University to notify and consult with affected students about module changes in accordance with the University's policy on the Approval of Modifications to Existing Taught Programmes of Study.