A brief history of Midwifery

Resurrecting an old thread.....

- Can't tell you the exact dates, but I started my training in 1989 as a Direct Entrant. At one time several hospitals around the country were offering DE training, but one by one they gradually stopped. All except the one where I trained, which carried on as the only hospital doing the course for about 13 years. I was in the last cohort for this original training programme.

They then stopped the training for a couple of years whilst a new Diploma course was developed, under the "Project 2000" initiative. I know that my tutors were instrumental in developing the programmes that have since evolved throughout the country. I believe Poole was the next to start the course. And gradually more and more hospitals/Uni's took on DE students.

BTW Soo Downe (Professor in Midwifery at Central Lancashire Uni), who has written many articles and books, is one of our more famous DE students from my day. She trained a few years before me and worked in the hospital as an E Grade Midwife when I was a student.

In a book called 'The Midwives Tales' it says direct entry midwives were practicing in 1929, and not as lay women either but as official DE.

A really interesting read, it's great to read the history of a subject that I'm passionate about.

what is the difference between nursing and midwifery

There's lots of information on this site that you can research to give you the answer to that x

You could have a look on the role descriptions on the NHS website.

It's a questions that comes up at interviews so not meant to share answers on the forum.

Bumping, just came in useless for my research for my Access Course! x