UCC SONM 25 Year Book

UCC / School of Nursing and Midwifery

Midwifery Education & Practice and changing health services

Throughout the 19 th Century the training of midwives was erratic at best, the early lying in hospitals provided training in midwifery mainly for physicians but also for midwives to provide care for women who gave birth at home. Certificates in midwifery were issued. In 1882, the Cork Lying in Hospital (which later became the Erinville Hospital) was recognised as a teaching institution by the Royal University of Ireland. In 1904 the midwifery programme in the Erinville was recognised by the Central Midwives Board in London under the Midwives’ Act 1902 and subsequently by the Midwives Act (Ireland) 1918. The first examinations in midwifery arranged by the Central Midwives Board (Ireland) were held in 1920 in Dublin, Cork and Belfast. From the early days of midwifery education, two access routes to midwifery were available, a direct entry programme and a shorter programme for applicants who had previously obtained a nursing certificate. A tradition rose that a midwifery qualification was necessary to complete ones training as a nurse. This allowed for greater flexibility and was often a pre requisite for work in district hospitals. These hospitals often provided a small maternity service and those with a midwifery qualification alone could be limited in the areas she/he could be deployed. Conversely, a general nurse without a midwifery qualification was also limited, as nurse training did not include any maternity experience until 1980. Applicants for direct entry to midwifery declined, and by 1954 there were just 19 applicants for midwifery registration who did not have a prior nursing qualification (Scanlon 1991). At St. Finbarr’s Hospital, midwifery education commenced in 1927. Pupil midwives were selected from nurses who completed general nurse training in the hospital. Training was provided by nurses and doctors as there was no midwife tutor in post in either Erinville or St. Finbarr’s until the 1950s. The Bon Secours Hospital delivered a midwifery programme from 1970 – 1980, this was for nurses who had undertaken their general nurse training in the Bon Secours. At the time, the midwife programme lasted for 12 months. Examinations for midwifery registration were held three times per year.

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