Midwifery in England and Wales before 1936: handywomen and doctors

The social history of medicine incorporates a respectable body of research on maternity care in Britain, but illegal midwifery in the 1920s and 1930s remains inadequately understood. Midwives' statutory regulation began with the Midwives Act of 1902, which was implemented over the eight years to 1910. The licensing body for England and Wales was the Central Midwives Board, which enrolled midwives with approved qualifications and, initially, others who were untrained but who were accepted as having been in 'bona fide' practice before the legislation. Its effect was to prohibit midwifery by the untrained 'handywomen' on whom many poorer women had formerly relied (1). The 'bona fide' enrolments covered some such practice, but it otherwise became illegal.