Surveying Midwives’ Experiences in Performing Self-Care Behaviors: A Qualitative Study

Introduction: Midwifery is a profession characterized by physical and psychological stressors. It is mostly practiced by women. Midwifery is one of the essential elements of community health. Besides, midwives’ health and performance are important in their self-care, improve service delivery, and encourage other women to engage in health-promoting behaviors. Analyzing factors affecting self-care by exploring midwives’ experiences can be a step towards improving their health and ultimately community health.Methods: The present study was conducted using a qualitative approach. The data were collected through 22 semi-structured individual interviews with midwives working in hospitals or health centers. Sampling was continued until data saturation. The collected data were analyzed using a conventional content analysis approach and simultaneously with sampling. The four criteria proposed by Lincoln and Guba were used to establish rigor in this study and validate the findings.Results: Two themes (health as a self-care outcome and different perceptions of health) and 5 main categories were extracted from the data in this study. The first theme was subdivided into three categories including the desire for a healthy life, preferring prevention over treatment, and inefficient self-care, which explains midwives’ awareness of and positive attitudes towards self-care and facilitators of self-care. The second theme (different perceptions of health) was divided into two categories including lack of risk perception and disregard for health behaviors that can account for barriers to midwives’ performance.Conclusion: To promote midwives’ health, special self-care programs need to be developed by policymakers by taking into account midwives’ motivation for self-care and existing job barriers.