This document summarizes a presentation by the Wellness Warriors group. The presentation discussed three ways of knowing that are important in midwifery: self-knowledge, grounded knowledge, and informed knowledge. Self-knowledge refers to a midwife's beliefs about women and birth. Grounded knowledge comes from a midwife's own experiences of childbirth. Informed knowledge is based on information from respected sources. The presentation used a role-playing skit to illustrate the difference between relying solely on informed knowledge versus combining informed and grounded knowledge.

1. Wellness Warriors Presentation Summary
Date of Presentation: September 23, 2011
Members: Valeria Suarez-Lasa, Giovanna Martone, Andrea Onuorah, Wajma Soroor, Brittney
Griffin, Harriet Brefo-Mensah, Shaozhen Wang, Airong Kuang, Shushanda Fenton, Emelia
Anyinam, Shewanesh Tewolde
In a hermeunetic phenomenological analysis of midwives’ ways of knowing during childbirth,
Hunter (2008) presents varying epistemologies of authoritative knowledge as well as innate or
inner knowledge. The article aims to carve out a way of knowing for the profession of
midwifery, a mix of the art and science of healing.
In medicine, authoritative knowledge is ‘merely scientific knowing’ (Hunter, 2008, p.407). Like
medicine, midwifery accepts authoritative knowledge, however, “midwives believe in holistic
care, they are inclusive in their conceptualization and practice of multiple ways of knowing”
(Hunter, 2008, p.407). They may use inner knowledge as well as medicine to practice. Inner
knowledge, or intuition, “[is] not an irrational thought but a conscious and deliberate thinking
process in a quest for meaning that simply did not follow a linear reasoning process” (Hunter,
2008, p. 407).
To better understand ‘knowing’ in midwifery, the article is to use textual analysis (i.e., poetry) as
evidence of knowledge. Researchers found that midwifery uses 3 prominent ways of knowing:
self-knowledge, grounded knowledge and informed knowledge while attending childbirth. Self-
knowledge is the midwives belief and philosophy about women and birth. These beliefs come
from a basis in both informed knowledge and grounded knowledge (Hunter, 2008, p.410).
Grounded knowledge “developed as the result of midwives’ own lived experiences of childbirth.
Informed knowledge was defined as information that came from a respected and reputable
source” (Hunter, 2008, p.411).
In the skit you saw in class, definitions were provided for both informed knowledge as well as
grounded knowledge. In the first scenario, Nurse X, a recent nursing graduate, uses her
informed knowledge to assess her client. She asks questions as they were taught from the trusted
sources – her textbooks and professors, not from her experience. However, when she notices a
bruise on the arm of her young client, she is placed in a conflicting position. Can she just rely on
the use of her textbooks to earn the clients’ trust? As the skit progresses, we see that Nurse X’s
skills are limited to informed knowledge only and so she dismisses the bruise as unimportant.
This scenario is intended to apply the use of informed knowledge only.
When we jump 10 years into the future and meet Nurse X again, she has grown from knowing to
becoming a nurse. She completes her assessment (based in informed knowledge) and as she
notices the bruised arm, she reflects on her own past experience of abuse and opens up to the
client. She shares a personal life story. The empathy and knowledge of a shared experience
Reference:
Hunter, L. (2008). A hermeneutic phenomenological analysis of midwives’ way of knowing during childbirth.
Midwifery, 24, 405-415.

2. gives the client reassurance, safety and trust. The combination of the use of informed knowledge
as well as ‘lived experience’ is an example of grounded knowledge. Please see the figure below
for a visual representation of this idea.
Informed Knowledge Grounded Knowledge
Reference:
Hunter, L. (2008). A hermeneutic phenomenological analysis of midwives’ way of knowing during childbirth.
Midwifery, 24, 405-415.