Sustaining Support 4. Coaching Counts: Creating Collaborative Learning Cultures

In this Essential Series, we have examined how to sustain support for midwives. In the first article we unpacked how effective support is essential for midwives’ wellbeing. Concepts of mentorship and supervision were reviewed across articles two and three, respectively. In this article, we consider coaching and how it might be utilised to strengthen midwives’ personal and professional development throughout their career. As with the previous papers in this Sustaining Support Series, we will unpack the definitions, features, applications, benefits and critical considerations of coaching for professional midwifery support to enable utilisation across your own practice. An example is used to bring coaching concepts to life, taken from experiences enabling effective learning in practice in the United Kingdom with considerations and comparisons to Australian contexts.