Midwifery in the 20th Century

As women gave birth, they sought and received care from supportive others. At an unknown point in the cultural evolution, some experienced women became designated as the wise women to be in attendance at birth. Thus, the profession of midwifery began. Indeed, as historians have noted, midwifery has been characterized as a social role throughout recorded history, regardless of culture or time.

Each country has its own unique history of midwifery and how the profession was established. The purpose of this paper is to examine the history of midwifery in the United States which was first established as a profession in the early 1920s. The paper focuses on the people important to the practice, policies and payments associated with the practice, the establishment and growth of the practice as a profession, and the various political issues attendant to the practice down through the century.

In the United States, midwives have been attending births in America since its colonization. By the year 1900, 95 percent of births occurred at home with most being delivered by midwives or doctors with attending midwives (Rooks, 1999). However, during the first decade of the century, several sociopolitical shifts were underway. The Wright brothers invented the airplane, millions of immigrants were pouring into America, a crisis occurre

. . .
y, poverty, language, culture or race (Marland & Rafferty, 1977). Despite these efforts, the practice steadily declined with the profession becoming exclusively associated with care of the foreign born or the nonwhite. In 1915, 40 percent of all births were attended by midwives. However, during the 1930s, the practice would decreased to 10.7 percent, of whom 54 percent of mothers were nonwhite (Marland & Rafferty, 1977). Midwifery: 1930 - 1960 According to Chester and Chester-McKusick (1998), during the 1930s, several events were occurring in the medical community. The American Board of Obstetricians and Gynecology was established. Physicians divided into general practitioners and specialists with specialists seeking to achieve professional ascendancy over the non-physician specialists such as obstetricians over midwives. They also sought to impress upon the general practitioner the limit of his abilities. The MCA began to train qualified public health nurses in midwifery. Independent of the Frontier Nursing Service, the Lobenstine Clinic initiated a program in 1931 to educate nurse-midwives to care for disadvantaged women in New York City, the country's most populous city. This education program survives today, although it
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Introduction Brucker, York City, Marland Rafferty, Benoit Teijlingen, Spiritual Midwifery, Joseph DeLee, Nurse Midwives, According Jacobson, Protection Act, Obstetricians Gynecology, marland rafferty, brucker 2001, rafferty 1977, american college, marland rafferty 1977, public health, history midwifery, rooks 1999, chester chester-mckusick 1998, nurse midwives, york city, public health nursing, jacobson 2001, organization public health, national organization public,
Approximate Word count = 1965
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

More Essays on Midwifery in the 20th Century