Wikipedia: Midwifery

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Midwifery is a blanket term used to describe a number of different types of non-MD medical practitioners who provide [prenatal care]? to expecting mothers, deliver the infants and provide [postnatal care]? to the mother and infant. Practitioners of midwifery are known as midwives and are almost exclusively women. Most deal with normal births only; if something abnormal is discovered during prenatal care, the patient is sent to an OB/GYN. Other midwives will deal with abnormal births, including breech births.

There are two main divisions of modern midwifery in the United States, nurse midwives and non-nurse midwives.

Nurse Midwives Nurse midwives are RN's (Registered Nurses) who have graduated from a nursing school and specialized in midwifery. Nurse midwives can practice in hospitals and regular medical clinics, often under the supervision of a OB/GYN. Currently 2% of nurse midwives are men.

Non-Nurse Midwives Midwives who are not registered nurses vary greatly in their training, certification and methods. Some are graduates of Colleges or Schools of Midwifery which offer degree and certification programs of different lengths. The American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) certification council provides accreditation to non-nurse midwife programs as well as colleges which graduate nurse midwives. Other midwives are trained through apprenticeships; they assist a practicing midwife for a period of time to learn the trade.

Midwives deliver children in any number of settings. While nurse midwives may perform most deliveries in hospitals or medical clinics, non-nurse midwives often perform [home deliveries]?. In many states midwives perform deliveries at [birthing clinic]?s where a group of midwives work together. Laws regarding who can practice midwifery and in what circumstances vary from state to state, and some midwives practice outside of the law.

In general, midwives perform births without painkillers, epidural?s, or [labor-inducing drugs]?. While some do use drugs in emergency situations to stop hemorrhaging, others use herbs and massage? in place of all drugs. Midwives were early adopters of the [water birth method]? and [birthing chair]?s. In general, midwives cut down on postnatal complications by letting births proceed naturally, so jaundice? commonly caused by labor-inducing drugs (needed because epidurals inhibit contractions), and requiring additional hospital stays is much less common with midwife assisted births than OB/GYN births. Postnatal infections are also much less common in mid-wife assisted home births than in hospital births.

Someone needs to write about the history of midwifery, the competition between mostly rural & female midwives and mostly urban & all male early medical doctors in the 18th and 19th centurys, and modern midwifery in countries other than the US