IA Training

Teaching fetal physiology as applied to IA increased midwives' confidence and clinical reasoning. Structured shadowed practice and mentoring supported less confident midwives in two sites. Some sites did not teach fetal physiology as applied to IA monitoring. There is no nationally agreed standard for IA training. Inconsistent IA training produced variation in technique, interpretation, counting method, and documentation. When fetal physiology was not taught, midwives lacked a framework for interpretation, reasoning, and escalation.