ABSTRACT
The history of childbirth from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries is often seen as one of the gradual encroachment of medical men into what was once an entirely female preserve. Jean Donnison, in her book Midwives and Medical Men charts the ‘decline of the midwife’ and the ‘ascendancy of men’ through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.1 This process culminated in the 1902 Midwives Act which ensured the continued existence of midwives, but at the cost of putting them in a ‘uniquely disadvantaged position among the professions’.2 The Central Midwives Board was established by the Act to control entry into the profession through training and examination, both monitored to a large extent by doctors. As the twentieth century progressed, the autonomy of the midwife was further eroded as the place of birth moved from home to hospital. In 1927 only 15 per cent of births occurred in institutions. By 1946 this figure had reached 54 per cent,3 and by 1980 it was a massive 98.6 per cent.4 According to Dingwall et al., this had transformed the midwife into a maternity nurse; she had become ‘an extension of the doctor rather than an alternative practitioner’ in her own right.5 By the end of the 1970s the accepted view was that no labour could be regarded as normal until it was complete,6 thus undermining the role of the midwife, the guardian of normal labour.7 It is tempting to assume that the practice of delivery had become entirely controlled by men. Men had assumed a powerful influence over the training of midwives and also over their working practices, which now took place almost exclusively in hospital.
