A different start: midwifery in South Australia 1836-1920

It is the popular belief of many midwives and nurses in Australia that midwives of the nineteenth and early twentieth century in this country practiced completely independently of medicine, resorting to medical assistance only if the labor and delivery did not progress normally. There is also the opinion that only affluent childbirthing women had a medical man in attendance at the delivery and poorer women had a midwife. Indeed, much of the Australian historical literature supports these notions. However, evidence suggests that in South Australia this was not the case and that generally midwives practiced in collaboration with medical men. Apart from some exceptions, both midwives and medical men attended the deliveries of most childbirthing women from all strata of society. This paper will explore the provision of midwifery care in the early days of settlement in South Australia and show how the relationship between the community midwife and the general practitioner developed. In doing so, this paper will establish that the normal place of delivery in nineteenth-century South Australia was in the home with both a doctor and midwife in attendance as part of normal community life.