Abstract

Severe events during the perinatal period can be experienced as traumatic by pregnant women, their partners or others who are closely involved including maternity care providers. We conducted a scoping review to map primary research investigating the impact of severe events during the perinatal period on maternity care providers, and how these experiences affect their well-being and professional practice. Following a systematic search and screening process, we included 57 papers in our analysis. We identified four categories which highlighted the impact of traumatic perinatal events on maternity care providers, mainly midwives, obstetricians and nurses: Traumatic events, Impact of traumatic events on care providers, Changes in care providers’ practice and Support for care providers; each including several subcategories. The impact of traumatic perinatal events on maternity care providers ranged from severe negative responses where care providers moved position or resigned from their employment in maternity care, to responses where they felt they became a better clinician. However, a substantial number appeared to be negatively affected by traumatic events without getting adequate support. Future research should explore which maternity care providers are mostly at risk for the impact of traumatic events and which interventions can contribute to prevention.