ABSTRACT
Chapter 14 considers the recommendations of the NHS Reorganisation Act 1973, which ended the historical practice of women’s self-referral to a midwife and changes in midwifery education and practice. It covers the closure of local welfare maternity clinics and the introduction of the GPO hospital birth. The NHS Reorganisation Act 1973 integrated care under the Area Health Authority. Midwives were obliged to practise their professional skills according to obstetric guidelines. Statistician Marjorie Tew concluded in 1986 that there no causal relationship between hospital birth and lower perinatal outcome. The 1980 Social Services Committee in 1986, Project 2000, ‘A New Preparation for Practice’, was introduced for the first time. The National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit (NPEU) multidisciplinary research unit was established at the University of Oxford in 1978; from that time, the debate around place of birth has continued unabated.
