ABSTRACT
When we think about the quality of care given to new and expectant mothers we tend to think small-looking at client characteristics, professional-client relationships, or clinical contexts. It is easy to forget that what happens in a maternity care clinic is a product of work done in legislative assemblies and ministries of health. State policies influence everything from the interactions between caregivers and clients to the clinical outcomes. In this chapter we take a close look at maternal health service policy in three countries-the United Kingdom, Finland, and Canada-giving special attention to the gendered implications of these policies. We believe that the post-World War II emergence and later transformation of “Western” welfare states has had the most important influence on maternal health service designs in high-income countries.
