ABSTRACT
The predominance of relatively independent midwives is a characteristic of contemporary Swedish maternity care. It is they who are wholly in charge of all uncomplicated deliveries as well as of prenatal care, with the exception of the routine medical examinations that a doctor always carries out on a pregnant woman.1 Midwives are able to prescribe contraceptives, insert IUDs, and to undertake obstetrical operations using their hands, forceps or a vacuum extractor when permitted by an obstetrician, and also when such permission cannot be obtained, as in an emergency situation.2
