Yesterday a symposium was held in Amsterdam in honour of Margreeth van der Meijde who stepped down as director of the Verloskunde Academie Amsterdam (the college for midwifery Amsterdam. At this symposium – the main theme was ‘ambition’-, one of the issues that was addressed and discussed was the ambition to build a stronger evidence-base for midwifery practice, especially for the extramural setting. For this purpose the midwifery colleges of Amsterdam and Groningen have started a collaboration with the In Holland University of Applied Sciences and the VU University Medical Center to establish a joint department of midwifery science. This joint department will build a master program for midwifery science, and a midwifery research infrastructure. This infrastructure will encompass an endowed chair for midwifery science, two senior and a number of junior researchers, and a nation-wide study that will form the basis for further research. The research program will be embedded within the EMGO Institute. This nation-wide study, called the Deliver Study, will help to build the necessary evidence-base. The initial research question will be:
• What is the quality of the care provided by midwives (professional quality of pre-conceptional, antenatal, natal and postnatal care, communication, client safety, client perceptions)?
• How is primary midwifery organized (gatekeeper function, role division, harmonization, responsibilities, cooperation, continuity of care, ICT, student supervision)?
• How accessible is midwifery care (proximity, care consumption, midwifery problems at GP service point)?
The study will however, form the basis for investigations of a wider range of important research questions. For this purpose, ‘add-on’ studies can be submitted to use and further help to build the Deliver data base .
