Midwifery: a profession in transition.

This study sought to explore midwifery self-identity in relation to two major, competing discourses-medicine and midwifery. In-depth interviews were conducted with twenty-two midwives working in different settings. Although the study was exploratory, the findings showed conclusively that midwifery is not a static, discrete body of knowledge (Commonwealth Department of Human Services and Health 1996); nor should midwifery be seen necessarily falling neatly into one stream or another (Davis-Floyd 1992). Rather, midwifery is a discursive practice (Kent 2000). The midwife (like the obstetrician and nurse) trawls through a range of discourses (or ways of understanding and knowing) about the body and childbirth in order to construct their own practice. Midwifery is a fluid process of subject formation which changes over time according to age; experience; and setting of practice (private or public hospital, birth centre or home). Of primary significance is the way midwives viewed the body. Few midwives fell into either the medical (obstetric assistant) model or the midwifery (professional, independent) model. Most midwives could be classified 'hybrid' in the sense that their clinical practice drew variously on each of the major discourses according to contextual factors.