The midwives described memos, care plans and routines as pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that provided support and security in their daily work and served as a frame that set boundaries but also allowed freedom. It is compared with Downe et al. (2007) who describe a kno-wing when to step in and when to let it be. The midwives experienced lack of security when the pieces were too many or very complex, as they no longer knew how to fit them all in. Previous knowledge and experience were jeopardised and the midwives lost control and made it difficult to make use of what Oberle and Allen (2001) call practical wisdom. The same sense of insecurity emerged when there was not enough time to perform all their duties and had less time for the patients. The results show that human relationships (Hunter et al., 2008) can be likened to the threads that bind a fabric together. Good relationships between different professional cate-gories and with patients are of fundamental importance for high quality maternity care (Olsson and Adolfsson, 2012).