Date of Award
2025
Degree Name
Master of Philosophy (School of Nursing)
First Supervisor
Prof Sadie Geraghty
Second Supervisor
Dr Sheena McChlery
Abstract
This research investigated midwives lived experiences of using gender-inclusive language in public maternity care, examining how linguistic practices intersect with professional identity, ethical commitment, and institutional constraint. Informed by feminist theory and guided by descriptive phenomenology with a constructivist paradigm, the study explored how midwives navigate the profession’s foundational ethos of being ‘with woman’ while responding to the ethical imperative to provide inclusive care in an increasingly diverse society. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight practising midwives in Western Australia, generating rich descriptions of how inclusive language is enacted, negotiated, and constrained in practice. Reflexive thematic analysis produced three overarching themes: Navigating Woman-Centred Care and Gender-Inclusive Practice, Language as a Site of Empowerment and Resistance, and Systemic and Cultural Influences on Inclusive Care. Across these themes, four cross-cutting dynamics were evident: language as relational and negotiated; inclusive care as ethical praxis; documentation and medico-legal constraint; and institutional and cultural inertia. The findings demonstrate that gender-inclusive language is experienced by midwives not as a procedural adjustment but as an ethical extension of midwifery’s relational and feminist philosophy. Participant’s described enacting inclusive practice through humility, advocacy, emotional labour, and reflexive awareness, while simultaneously navigating binary documentation systems, medico-legal concerns, and entrenched organisational norms. These tensions highlight that inclusive communication relied not only on individual commitment but also on structural support. A key conceptual contribution of this study is the articulation of with-ness, a relational ethic that reinterprets the spirit of ‘with woman’ for contemporary maternity care. With-ness foregrounds presence, solidarity, and ethical attentiveness rather than gendered categorisation, offering a framework through which midwives can honour feminist heritage while recognising all who birth. Overall, the study argues that inclusive language strengthens, rather than diminishes, the moral centre of midwifery. By extending the ethos of relational care to encompass the full diversity of birthing identities, with-ness provides a pathway toward more equitable, just, and person-centred maternity services.
Publication Details
de Wet, K. (2025). Negotiating With-ness: Midwives' Lived Experiences of Gender, Inclusive Language, and Professional Identity. [Master of Philosophy (School of Nursing)]. The University of Notre Dame Australia. https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/theses/489