The development and peer review of evidence-based guidelines to support midwifery led care in labour

Objectiveto describe the development and peer review process for the third edition of evidence-based guidelines to support the provision of midwifery led care in labour.Methodsthe process of guideline development including identifying aspects of care for inclusion in the guidelines, the literature search strategy, bibliographic databases used, types of literature reviewed and rationale for inclusion are detailed. The process of formulating recommendations for practice is described. The peer review process, involving the principal stakeholders in the guidelines (midwives and representatives of maternity service users), the appraisal instrument used and issues identified during peer review are included. The third edition of the guidelines was commissioned in 2003 and completed during 2004.Discussionthe development of the evidence-based guidelines is discussed in the context of contemporary debate related to guideline development and evidence-based practice including issues related to the nature and hierarchy of evidence, stakeholder involvement and sociological discourses of evidence-based medicine.