108 | Chapter 5 Lack of social resources Participants perceived a lack of back-up from colleagues in their team, an unpleasant team atmosphere and a lack of professional recognition. They felt dissatisfied in terms of collaboration with colleagues. This related to the problems of collaboration between the team of midwives in community care practices and to collaboration problems between community care and hospital care. Regarding the lack of support from colleagues in organising their practice, participants experienced a lack of engagement with colleagues about innovations or adjustments they needed for their own wellbeing and health, for example. This lack of commitment led to feelings of withdrawal. Just be nice to each other for once... we are all doing 24-hour or 48-hour shifts... Let’s have a good look at this situation together: Is this healthy? Isn’t it time to make a change? Not as in, yes, this is how we do it because that’s how we have been doing it for years..., but I couldn’t really identify with the group of midwives around me. (P14) For less experienced midwives, the lack of support from fellow midwives and the lack of being able to consult with colleagues during their shift was one of the reasons for leaving the job. What I was missing a bit was a sort of general safety, or maybe more of a culture in which, when you have just finished your studies, you are more supported by others, or it is normal to discuss cases and things. (P17) Some participants perceived hierarchical relationships in the collaboration between community and hospital-based midwifery care. They also felt a lack of professional recognition for their position as a midwife. I really want to work together, but only on an equal footing and everyone on their own, everyone as an expert in their own field. I am not going to tell a gynaecologist to do a caesarean, like this and this lady should be lying like that, I don’t know. That is not my area of expertise. So, I don’t want it the other way around either. And if that had happened but if we still would have had, this mutual respect between us, I would still have been there, yes. (P11) A lack of work resources was mentioned as a reason for leaving the midwifery profession. This included the following: changing client demands, a lack of challenging tasks and concerns about the autonomy of midwives.
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