ABSTRACT
This chapter sets the historical and present political and professional context to case load held practice. It provides a global perspective through looking at models such as the ‘Midwifery Partnership’ model in New Zealand (NZ) and focuses on how this model has been sustained for nearly thirty years. A comparison of the NZ model’s success to the United Kingdom’s (UK) implementation of the recommendations of the Changing Childbirth Report ensues. Throughout history midwives have been ‘with women’ with references to midwives evident as far back as biblical times. The hospitalization and subsequent medicalization of maternity care together with decreasing midwifery autonomy followed a similar path in NZ as it did in the UK. During the late 1980s midwives, feminist and childbirth activists became increasingly vocal about the increasing medicalization of childbirth. Midwifery care in NZ, is nationally funded, based on Primary Care and the principles of the Partnership Model.
