Lindsay Hobbs

Hi, I’m Lindsay. I’m a midwife academic living in Whitby, North Yorkshire. I am a registered midwife employed as an associate professor in midwifery at the University of Bradford. Since midwifery registration in 1990 I have provided care for women and birthing people in all areas, but mainly in the community. I am also a doctoral researcher with the Open University. My main interest and the subject of my research is the use of language in maternity services and how this may be used to exert power and coerce decision making. Particular terminology strikes me eg. the use of ‘lady’ when professionals refer to women and how rapidly this is embedded in student midwife language.

My midwifery philosophy of woman centred care is entrenched in a social perspective of birth yet I hear language commonly used by midwives reflecting a medical model eg ‘delivery’, ‘allowed’, and ‘failure to progress’. None of these terms put the woman at the centre of her own childbearing experience.

My Master’s thesis asked “what factors do midwives and doctors perceive affect team working on labour ward”? Strikingly the language used by many professionals to express their perceptions was militarian eg fighting, following orders, territory, boundary, ammunition, surveillance, defending, thus highlighting difference and a need to dominate.

Research area/topic:

My research area is the use of spoken and written language in maternity services. I am interested in how the words used by professionals, in particular around induction of labour help women decide whether or not to be induced. The research will be used to help students and other health care professionals learn how pregnant women and birthing people want information about induction of labour presented to them.