Objective: to examine whether equal power is essential to the perceptions of partnership in midwifery practice and to propose an alternative model of how power might best be shared.
Design: a cross-sectional design was employed using the predominant methods of interview, questionnaires and thinking aloud tape recordings as triangulation of data.
Setting: two large metropolitan hospitals in Auckland, New Zealand and home birth settings.
Sample: Forty one independent and hospital-based midwives and 37 nulliparous women at low obstetric risk for whom labour care was provided.
Findings: the majority of the midwives and the women in the two studies presented believed they had achieved a midwifery partnership with little emphasis placed on the need for equality in decision making.
Key conclusions and implications for practice: the model proposed provides a framework that identifies how power can be shared without the need for equality. The integration of this model into practice may assist midwives and women to recognise and utilise differences in their experience and knowledge to achieve their aims of achieving a partnership and a successful birth.