Category: Midwifery Council

A possible win-win for mothers and midwives vs. business-as-usual Since the 1980s, most L&D units have ‘permitted’ unmedicated women to get out of bed, and fathers and family members are now ‘allowed’ to present for the birth, but this only returns us to the central theme for many contemporary women – the absence of an… Continue reading Part 4: How the obstetrical profession can eliminate the “midwife problem” forever but will never do it

Part 3 ~ Turning a backlash into forward action ~ women’s groups plan to acknowledge and protect the human dignity of childbearing women As judged by worldwide standards, the historically poor performance of interventive obstetrics in the US represented an uncritical acceptance of an unscientific premise — a ‘one-size-fits-all’ obstetrical model that repeated and continually fails to distinguish between healthy… Continue reading Part 3: How the obstetrical profession can eliminate the “midwife problem” but will never do it

Historical overview For centuries obstetrics was simply a general part of medicine. Since it did not include any advanced training in reproductive surgery, the skills of the average family practice doctor were not all that different from the typical practice of midwifery. In colonial American, childbirth services were split 50-50 between midwives and MDs. Before… Continue reading Part 2 ~ Historical Overview: How the obstetrical profession can eliminate the “midwife problem” forever but will never do it