Midwifery Practice and Education: Current Challenges and Opportunities.

Midwifery clinical practice and education has changed significantly since Mary Breckinridge first introduced nurse-midwives to the United States in 1925. This article discusses current challenges in midwifery clinical practice and education and proposes possible solutions. Midwifery clinical challenges include restrictive legislation and business-related barriers, including but not limited to physician supervision restrictions, prescriptive authority, out-of-hospital birth legislation, and third party reimbursement.

Contemporary childbirth education models.

Since the 1960s, childbirth education advocates have attempted to persuade pregnant women that educational preparation for labor and birth is an essential component of the transition to motherhood. Initially, pregnant women who were seeking unmedicated births as a refuge from the inhumane childbirth treatments of the mid-20th century embraced this view. However, with the changing childbirth climate, including a growing preference for medicated birth, scheduled inductions, and cesarean sections, attendance has diminished and childbirth education finds itself at a crossroads.