Advancing Midwifery Practice: Facilitating Group Antenatal Care

Learn quickly in an intensive summer-school environment.

During this course, you will engage in a range of experiential, interactive and participatory learning activities. By completing this immersive and stimulating learning, you will gain the skills necessary to facilitate group care and to critically evaluate your ability to create a safe environment for the facilitation of inclusive and empowering group maternity care.

This course is primarily designed for registered midwives. However, the course may be of value to other health professionals, educators and therapists interested in developing their group facilitation skills.

This course can also be taken as a module as part of the Global Maternal Health MSc.

Who is it for?

This course is for maternal health professionals who:

• want to update and improve their maternity care practice
• are interested in the research on group maternity care facilitation
• are committed to empowering women during pregnancy
• are passionate about tackling maternal health inequality

Timetable

Term 3

This module will run from Monday 13^th July and end on Wednesday 23^nd July 2026.

Benefits

This is the only course of its kind offering you both practical and theoretical understanding of how to facilitate group maternal care.

Experts in different aspects of group care from outside City will also be invited to facilitate as part of the courand 17se.

This short course module is designed to be flexible in allowing you to study and reach your goals at your own pace. Our health CPD courses are credit-bearing modules that contribute to a University degree or award.

Transfer course credits towards postgraduate taught degree

As a health care professional, once you've completed this course you could offset 15 credits as part of a postgraduate programme, continuing your study with further modules to make up a Postgraduate Certificate (PGCert) 60 credits, Postgraduate Diploma (PGDip) 120 credits or Master of Science (MSc) 180 credits qualification (all credits must be awarded within five years of study commencing).

Working with groups requires specific skills, including managing relationships in a group setting, facilitation of teamwork and teambuilding, the development of others and the building of robust social networks with women.

The benefits of the acquisition of this skillset apply to a range of situations including but not restricted to: the development of more group-based and inclusive models of antenatal and postnatal care, the provision of antenatal education, working within a multi-disciplinary professional team, fostering effective team working, and enhancing leadership skills.

By the end of this course you will be able to:

• Work effectively as part of a group
• Facilitate team building and teamwork
• Develop and empower others
• Organise group antenatal and postnatal care
• Problem solve and manage group dynamics with compassion and efficiency
• Seamlessly integrate clinical, social support and education
• Enhance women’s social capital through the building of robust social networks
• Support vulnerable women through inclusivity
• Understand the impact of peer support and service-user empowerment on social and clinical outcomes in maternity

Successful completion of this course requires students to complete all three components of the summative assessment.

Component 1: Observed facilitation of an inclusive group. (20 % of the mark)

Component 2: Partake in grading of peers’ groups facilitation sessions. Pass/Fail

Component 3: Write a 2,000-word written reflective account describing your experience of being part of the group and your experience of group facilitation. (80% of mark)

On successful completion of all three components of the assessment, you will be awarded 15 level 7 credits. These credits can be put towards a PGCert or MSc in Midwifery at City, University of London.

In addition, on completion of four out of the five study days, all students will receive a certificate as proof of completion. This evidence can be used towards your NMC revalidation.

This course is provided by the School of Health & Medical Sciences.

Credits

This course is worth 15 credits toward eligible programmes.

Applicants would normally be expected to have been practicing in maternity care for a minimum of one year.

English requirements

Sharma, J., O’Connor, M. and Jolivet, R.R., 2018. Group antenatal care models in low-and middle-income countries: a systematic evidence synthesis. Reproductive health, 15(1), p.38.

Catling, C.J., Medley, N., Foureur, M., Ryan, C., Leap, N., Teate, A. and Homer, C.S., 2015. Group versus conventional antenatal care for women. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (2).

Hunter, L.J., Da Motta, G., McCourt, C., Wiseman, O., Rayment, J.L., Haora, P., Wiggins, M. and Harden, A., 2019. Better together: A qualitative exploration of women’s perceptions and experiences of group antenatal care. Women and Birth, 32(4), pp.336-345.