ABSTRACT
This chapter examines women's involvement in determining the nature of childbirth services, and argues that, in New Zealand at least, they showed no lack of assertiveness in demanding the kind of services they wanted. The evolution of childbirth services in New Zealand during a crucial period of change was not simply the result of obstetricians pushing for professional control of childbirth. Government legislation, as Joan Donley has noted, medicalized childbirth by providing free and universal hospital-based childbirth services. The commitment of the new government to social justice, and the importance it attached to building a strong population base ensured that maternity services were high on its agenda. Once universal hospitalization was achieved, women continued to press for changes within the hospital system. The government successfully diffused the situation by setting up a Committee on Maternity Services which included a consumer representative, as demanded by the National Council of Women (NCW), Parents Centre and the newly established National Consumer Council.
