BACKGROUND:
The benefits to new mothers of debriefing their birth experience with a midwife are now well known: evidence confirms that it can help relieve emotional distress, avert psych-emotional trauma, and support transition to parenthood. Who should conduct birth debriefing conversations, however, is a topic of contention. Information about the process midwives should follow in debriefing conversations, or the relative impact of any particular approach, is less well reported.

OBJECTIVES:
The study implemented a birth debriefing guide within a tertiary maternity health service to explore the role of the midwife in facilitating psycho-emotional wellbeing.

METHODS:
We employed a type II hybrid effectiveness-implementation design, simultaneously evaluating both the efficacy of the birth debriefing guide and its implementation in a clinical setting, the methodology incorporating both analysis of implementation and birth debrief effectiveness. The study was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee at the study site. Data were collected from Jan 2025- June 2025. Thematic analysis was used to make sense of the data.

RESULTS:
New insights indicate that debrief using our guide was beneficial, helped women understand their birth story, helped them feel stronger and facilitated a plan moving forward. The service confirmed successful implementation of the birth debriefing guide into midwives’ clinical practice.

CONCLUSIONS:
Context analysis reveals that stakeholders, organizational management, and midwifery staff have embraced the birth debriefing guide as an effective framework that captures the comprehensive scope of midwives' role in providing psycho-emotional care during the postnatal period.

KEY MESSAGE:
This study recognizes and formalizes midwifery-led birth debriefing, until now a nebulous yet essential aspect of midwifery practice. Poster session 1 (Group A)