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Social History of Medicine 1993 6(2):237-259; doi:10.1093/shm/6.2.237
© 1993 by Society for the Social History of Medicine
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An Honourable Calling or a Despised Occupation: Licensed Midwifery and its Relationship to District Nursing in England in England and Wales before 1948

ENID FOX*

*School of Health and Human Sciences, University of Hertfordshire College Lane, Hatfield, Herts. AL10 9AB

SUMMARY In seeking to protect their occupational autonomy, modern midwives assert their independent, professional status as licensed practitioners,On one historical interpretation,their licensing never meant professional independence, but discretion within rules set by others. Following this lead, it is suggested that, licensing notwith standing, midwifery was a depressed occuption of ambivalent and insecure status until it became fully identified with nursing and was practised in employment rather than independently. The question of the linked phenomena of salaried status midwifery in rural district nursing, and the reform of the medwifery services in 1936.in conclusion, it is suggested that the virtual loss of district nurses' midwifery to history, and the presentation of midwives' history in terms of professioanl independence, are the presentation of midwives history in terms of professional independence, are related to the same social factors;and that the history of domiciliary midwifery in England and Wales in the first half of the twentieth century may be better understood by reference to market forces than to models of professionalization that stress inter–professional conflict.

Keywords: Credentialism; district nursing; domiciliary services; maternity care; midwifery; professionalization; State welfare; voluntary service


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