Primary care midwives are essential to improving the health of women and babies in rural and remote resource-limited settings. This vital workforce must have the essential knowledge, skills, and resources to provide quality care specific to their work context. This is particularly imperative in caring for women and babies with complications where delays in quality emergency care can lead to morbidity or death. Yet, many midwives are not adequately prepared or supported to meet the demands of this challenging role.

Despite the importance and complexity of providing quality midwifery care to rural and remote communities, the research evidence for preparing and supporting midwives in this context is limited. This PhD mixed-methods study aims to identify the needs and opportunities for strengthening primary care midwives' emergency maternal and neonatal care preparedness and readiness in rural and remote resource-limited settings.  By exploring the experiences and insights of midwives, midwifery educators, health service managers, policymakers, and professional experts, we aim to provide evidence for translation into policy, education and practice.
 
A summary of the study’s research methods, dissemination and anticipated outcomes are presented in the infographic below.