ABSTRACT

Chapter 10 looks into the development of midwifery education, including Central Midwives Board examinations and a pupil casebook. The 1936 Act and employment of midwives, the introduction of gas and air analgesia and the daily life and practice of a double worker rural midwife are illuminated. The role and status of the midwife in WWII, the evacuation of childbearing women and mothers and the revised programme of midwifery education are considered. Likewise, the comparative hardship occasioned by midwifery training is shown in midwives’ own words, addressed by the Rushcliffe Report 1943. The postwar baby boom and introduction of the National Health Service (NHS) are discussed.