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Complexities in Maternity Care - HEA00168I

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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 2 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.

  • To recognise and respond to the additional care needs of women and newborn infants with complications as identified in the NMC (2019) Standards of proficiency for midwives and current best, evidence-based practice.

  • To ensure understanding of the specific responsibilities of the midwife within interdisciplinary and multi agency teams to enable safe and effective additional care for women and newborn infants with complications.

Module learning outcomes

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

  1. Understand and respond to complications and additional care needs of women and newborn infants, partners and families, recognising that these may relate to physical, psychological, social, cultural and spiritual factors.

  2. Evaluate the aetiology, presentation, development and interdisciplinary/multidisciplinary management of pre-existing, current and emerging medical, physical, obstetric and mental health conditions which may be detrimental to maternal and fetal/neonatal health.

  3. Identify, and safely and effectively respond to, the midwife’s role in caring for women, and newborn infants requiring medical, obstetric, mental health and social care, and other services.

  4. Critically evaluate the role of the midwife within timely interdisciplinary and multiagency collaboration regarding continuity and coordination of midwifery care in the context of additional care needs and complications.

  5. Analyse and evaluate ethical dilemmas and exercise judgement to act as an advocate for women and newborn infants, ensuring they remain the focus of care in the context of additional care needs and complications.

Module content

Content includes: contemporary, evidence-based knowledge and understanding (including reports and data on local, national and international prevalence and risk) of complications and additional care needs for women, newborn infants and families, encompassing topics such as diabetes, pre eclampsia, neurological and cardiac complexities relevant to current midwifery care. Physical, psychological, social, cultural and spiritual factors and their aetiology, presentation, development and interdisciplinary/multidisciplinary management of pre-existing, current and emerging medical, physical, obstetric (maternal and fetal/neonatal) and mental health conditions, including complex mental health conditions such as postpartum psychosis and schizophrenia; embryology, fetal development adaptation to life, the newborn infant, very early child development, the transition to parenthood and positive family attachment, infant feeding and the implications of feeding for very early child development. Contemporary, evidence-base to recognise and act on complications and additional care needs, deploy appropriate clinical decision making and provide timely care, support or referral, involving interdisciplinary and multiagency working (midwifery, medical, obstetric, mental health, social care & other services); provide respectful, kind, compassionate care; understand potential impact of complications and additional care needs on health and well-being; advocacy; ethical dilemmas; traumatic experiences & their sequelae: minimising birth trauma and providing trauma informed care; clinical skills (including simulation); full systematic physical examination of the newborn infant in line with local and national evidence-based protocols; themes within UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative (BFI) University Standards mapped to this module including understanding breastfeeding and the implications of complications on the transition to parenthood.

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
Closed/in-person Exam (Centrally scheduled) 100

Special assessment rules

Non-compensatable

Indicative reassessment

Task % of module mark
Closed/in-person Exam (Centrally scheduled) 100

Module feedback

Students are provided with collective exam feedback relating to their cohort, within the timescale specified in the programme handbook

Indicative reading

Abbott, L. (Ed). (2021). Complex social issues and the perinatal woman. Switzerland: Springer Nature

Bothamley, J. and Boyle, M. (2021). Medical conditions affecting pregnancy and childbirth. (2nd ed). Abingdon: Routledge.

Brown, A. (2019). Why breastfeeding grief and trauma matter. London: Pinter & Martin.

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

Hansard, N. (2020). Supporting survivors of sexual abuse through pregnancy and childbirth: A guide for midwives, doulas and other healthcare professionals. London: Singing Dragon

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

Jones, T. (Ed). (2019). The student’s guide to the newborn infant physical examination. Abingdon: Routledge.

Lomax, A. (Ed). (2021). Examination of the newborn an evidence-based guide (3rd ed). Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.

National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit (NPEU). (2022). MBRRACE-UK. Mothers and babies: reducing risk through audits and confidential enquiries across the UK.[Online]. Available at: https://www.npeu.ox.ac.uk/mbrrace-uk [Accessed 11 March 2022].

National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). (2022). Collection 'Care and decision-making in pregnancy: research reveals the support women need'. [Online] Available at: https://doi.org/10.3310/collection_49024 [Accessed 11 March 2022].

Nelson-Piercy, C. (2015). Handbook of obstetric medicine. (5th ed). New York: Informa Healthcare.

Robson, S. E. and Waugh, J. (Eds). (2013). Medical disorders in pregnancy: a manual for midwives. (2nd ed). Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.

Rankin, J. (Ed). (2017). Physiology in childbearing: with anatomy and related biosciences. (4th ed). London: Elsevier.

Rennie, J. M. (Ed). (2014). Rennie & Roberton’s textbook of neonatology. (5th ed). Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.

Silver, A. J. (2022). Supporting queer birth. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

VanMeter, K. C. and Hubert, R. J. (2022). Gould’s pathophysiology got the health professionals. (7th ed). Edinburgh: Elsevier


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.