The lost voice of midwifery

The proposed review and amendments to the Nurses' Act in South Australia has caused intense debate in this state especially between nurses and midwives. On the one hand midwives claim that the new changes will affect their ability to deliver optimum care to the childbirthing woman and so affect their role as midwife. While on the other hand nurses counter claim that the proposed changes to the Act will not make any difference to midwifery care and cannot understand what all the fuss is about. Yet midwifery has never sat comfortably under the umbrella of nursing and this debate is not new. This paper takes a historical look at the professionalisation of nursing prior to the implementation of the original Nurses' Registration Act of South Australia in 1920. It explores the implications of this for the midwife of the time, highlighting the unresolved differences between these two professions that have contributed to the debate of today.