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Facilitating functional decision making in midwifery: lessons from decision theory

Abstract:

Midwives have a professional and ethical responsibility to facilitate and support a woman’s decision making without coercion. Communicating information to women is a necessity for a midwife and it can be a challenge when each woman is different and will make decisions from her own perspective. Midwives are in a position to influence women in decision making and this paper considers the decision process from a theoretical perspective, focusing on descriptive decision theory, concerning cognition and information processing, as one approach that midwives might find useful to consider in everyday practice. Four strategies are discussed as a response to knowledge of descriptive theory to do with utilising positive affect, involving whanau/family, modes of thinking and narrative.

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decision making, descriptive decision theory, professional duty, relationship with women