Helpers in Childbirth by Oakley Ann;Houd Susanne; & Susanne Houd

Author:Oakley, Ann;Houd, Susanne; & Susanne Houd [Oakley, Ann & Houd, Susanne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 1990-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

The role midwives play in alternative care reflects their role in the official system. On the whole, the weaker the position of midwives in the official services, the more pronounced their role in the alternative sector. Even in European countries with a comparatively strong tradition of midwifery as an autonomous profession, the midwives within or attached to hospital obstetrics tend to become doctors’ assistants and/or to be replaced by nurses. The lead roles of the alternative perinatal service movement are played not by midwives but by doctors, and male doctors at that.

Two main lessons can be learned from the role of midwives in alternative care. One concerns the place of the law in regulating what midwives do. In general, in the countries we visited, midwives working within the hospital-based official system perform a range of activities and undertake a degree of responsibility that is much smaller than that legally allowed; working outside the system, however, their responsibilities and activities often exceed the legally permissible limit. The second lesson is thus that the most effective challenge to the male hegemony of the modern technological medical world may well lie in the domain of independent domiciliary practice.

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