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145
The main causes of the low remuneration of midwives are:—
(a) The economic position of those persons in the community
who principally employ midwives.
(b) The part-time practice carried on by large numbers of
midwives as an aid to another source of income.
(c) The excessive number of midwives qualified, arising
from the shortness of the present period of training and the
low educational standard required from entrants.
Reforms and extensions of training designed to raise the
status and efficiency of the service of midwives to its proper
level will, however, inevitably involve the candidate in additional
expense which cannot be met by the present type of
entrant. If such extensions were introduced before other
reforms had made the profession attractive to a better class
of candidate, the probable result would be a shortage of midwives
within a few years.
The Midwives' Act, 1936—Formulation of Proposals.
Report Submitted by the Medical Officer of Health in
December, 1936.
The Midwives Act, 1936, came into operation on 31st July,
1936.
The principal object of the Act is to secure the organisation
throughout the country of a domiciliary service of salaried midwives
under the control of local supervising authorities as an important
step in the improvement of the maternity services and in the
campaign for reducing maternal mortality. At the same time,
the whole status of the midwifery profession will be raised by
providing adequate salaries and secure prospects for those midwives
who enter the new service, and by compensating those who retire
within a specified period and so reducing the present overcrowding
in the ranks of the profession.
The Act provides for the establishment by local supervising
authorities of a salaried midwives' service ; the payment by those
authorities of compensation to midwives who voluntarily retire
from practice and to those who are required to retire owing to old
age or infirmity ; the payment by the Exchequer of grants towards
the cost of the new service and towards the amounts expended in
compensation ; the prohibition of maternity nursing by unqualified