ABSTRACT
Midwifery care has always included a public health component, although the emphasis has shifted over the years from an emphasis on reducing maternal and child mortality and the control of contagious diseases at the turn of the twentieth century to a greater emphasis on increasing breastfeeding rates, tackling ‘lifestyle’ issues such as smoking and obesity and the need for good mental health by the beginning of the twenty-first century (Leap & Hunter 1993; Crabbe & Hemingway 2014). As a profession, midwifery acknowledges childbirth as a psychological and social event rather than a purely clinical event and that optimum outcomes are the result of individual, community and organisational effort. In essence midwives have understood that childbirth and raising a family are more than just a medical event and that the outcomes depend as much on the mother and the family’s social, psychological and environmental circumstances as on the input of health professionals.
