UCC SONM 25 Year Book

UCC / School of Nursing and Midwifery

Slowly, the situation improved and by 1800, midwives were to learn ‘not only the common practice of a midwife, but also those accidents and extraordinary occurrences sometimes attendant on parturition as might render them more eminently serviceable to the public’ (Scanlon 1991 p 57). It was noted that the scheme provided some ‘excellent midwives’ but training in midwifery was considered expensive and funding for midwives remained scarce. By 1851, the Poor Law authorities took responsibility for the dispensary system (a precursor of the General Medical Services) which provided midwives to assist poor women (Geary 2004). Women selected a midwife for their birth based on who was available locally and whom they would trust. Increasingly small hospitals provided maternity beds and midwives would call on the local GP if they encountered problems at the birth. Most midwives worked in domiciliary settings and were seen by doctors as potential competitors. In tandem with domiciliary midwifery care, hospital services developed in Cork. Hospital birth was recommended for women experiencing complex pregnancies, caesarean sections and instrumental births became safer and medications and technologies advanced for improved diagnosis and treatment. This led to improvements in maternal mortality and morbidity. It was not until many years later that Tew (1995) identified that improvements in childbirth were not solely due to the increased hospitalisation and the provision of medical care; rather, it was due to improvements in health and social conditions of women and their families. However, by this time, doctors had become the dominant voice for safety in childbirth and community births declined.

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