**Midwifery Students' Perception of Intimate Touch in Clinical Practice**

Tita Stanek Zidarič and Metka Skubic

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/60499

**1. Introduction**

The term 'intimacy' and 'intimate' from the Latin words *intimus* (innermost) and *intimare* (to make the innermost known) can be used to refer to feelings, to verbal and nonverbal commu‐ nication processes, to behaviours, to people's arrangements in space, to personality traits, to sexual activities, and to kinds of long-term relationships [1].

In midwifery, touch has many purposes, meanings, and enactments. Some forms of touch do not cross the boundaries of the culturally accepted, while on some occasions, intimate physical touch must be employed in order to provide necessary care. Such touch involves inspection of, and possible physical contact with, those parts of the body whose exposure can cause embarrassment to either the woman, her partner, or the midwife.

Midwifery students who are still in the process of learning may be seen as a special and vulnerable population because in clinical settings, they might feel as outsiders, left alone to tend to their own learning needs, inexperienced in midwifery care, and unsure of their rights; alongside, as young people, they are often still struggling with their own sexual identity, orientation, and sexuality in general. At the same time, it is expected that as midwifery students in clinical practice, they will maintain clear sexual boundaries at all times towards the people for whom they provide care.
