Midwives/nurse midwives' autonomy experience in caring for labouring women in health facilities: a systematic review protocol with meta-synthesis.

Abstract

Midwives/nurse midwives are the healthcare professionals most often present on the birth scene. However, they have been the professionals who are most justified to defend their legally established position by arguing their competence and autonomy. Thus, it is important to show their reality through experiences, particularly when autonomy does notalign with regulations. This meta-synthesis aims to bring together scientific evidence regarding midwife/nurse midwife's autonomy experience in caring for labouring women in health facilities. The meta-aggregation will be used to conduct a systematic review of qualitative studies. In January 2025, a search was carried out in scientific databases: EBSCOhost (CINAHL Ultimate, MEDLINE Ultimate and Academic Search Complete), LILACS, PubMed, Wiley Online Library, Scopus and Web of Science. The articles will be independently reviewed by two authors who will assess data quality, extraction and synthesis. Studies will be assessed for rigour using critical appraisal tools provided by the Joanna Briggs Institute. Data extraction and synthesis will be carried out using software, and results will be presented in tables. The results of the qualitative research will, where possible, be grouped according to the meta-aggregation approach proposed by the Joanna Briggs Institute. Ethical approval to analyse secondary data is not required. The results will be published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at international and national conferences. CRD42024572542.