The Office of Midwife

Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Issue 2, 1 April 1917, Page 111

The Office of Midwife

The need for an increasing supply of wellqualified midwives was never more apparent than at the present time, when the importance of the preservation of infant life is leading to much activity in all that pertains to the care of expectant and nursing mothers and heir infants, and therefore to an increased demand for the services of midwives, wnether in their own particular sphere of work or as inspectors, health visitors, and in other branches of work in which their special knowledge is a qualification of great value^ A .problem for solution in the immediate future is how to secure and maintain an adequate supply of midwives, and the first point which presents itself is the veey poor and uncertain remuneration obtainable by midwives for their highly responsible and arduous work. It compares most unfavourably even with the modest salaries obtained by district nurses, whose work }s fairly regular, and there is little to induce the right type of women to qualify as midwives or to practise when trained. This is the more serious because there is a shortage of medical practitioners in this country, on account of those occupied in naval and military work, a shortage which is likely 4 o continue for some time to come, as the war is affecting also the supply of medical students, and, therefore, midwifery work will increasingly fall into the hands of midwives.

This journal has always held in high honour the office of midwife, believing it is one of the utmost value to the community when rightly discharged, and which affords useful and satisfying employment for women. The trouble has always been that, outside institutions, the difficulty for a midwife to make a living is considerable, and the only really satisfactory solution of the problem appears to be that midwives should be appointed and subsidized by the State and the local authorities, and of this we now appear to be within measurable distance. This will give the midwife an honourable position, and consequently attract desirable women to enter the ranks of practising midwives. The above extract from the Briitsh Journal of Nursing applies very well to the conditions in New Zealand, but in regard to the pay, midwives in New Zealand compare more than favourably with those at Home. The point which, however, should should be noted is the low standard of training as compared with midwives here. One midwifery nurse, qualified under the C.M.B. and recently registered here, has since been found incapable of taking

or recording a temperature, never in the course of her so-called training having been taught these elements of nursing. Therefore, before such important matters as outlined above are confided to th^

hands of midwives, there should be an endeavour to ensure that a training commensurate with these proposed functions shall be laid down for all midwives registered under the C.M.B.