Product Description

There have always been midwives in Scotland although their history has been largely undocumented. The Midwives (Scotland) Act was passed in 1915 and regularised midwifery training and practice. Before this, although some women went through a form of training in midwifery, many women came to the profession by chance or through financial necessity. After the Act, the howdies of old gradually gave way to midwives, enrolled by the new Central Midwives' Board for Scotland. In this oral history, individuals remember an incident, a decade, a career, a lifetime, tracing the development of midwifery in Scotland in the twentieth century from their very own personal perspectives.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #382170 in Books
• Published on: 2000-11-21
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 194 pages

About the Author
Born and brought up in Banchory, Kincardineshire, Lindsay Reid has been a midwife, midwife teacher and research assistant with the Midwifery Research Group at the University of Glasgow. She is now a freelance writer and is pursuing a PH.D. at the University of Glasgow in the development of midwifery practice in Scotland from 1916 to 1983.

Customer Reviews

Interesting to anyone, or knows someone, who's had a baby!
Book is basically a series of interviews, mostly with midwives, about childbirth and baby care in the last century. Conditions in many areas was very primitive - I am so glad my babies were born in the last quarter of the century. Some of the contributors are now in their eighties so memories cover a long period. Highlighted are the changes associated with childbirth as medical knowledge increased and male doctors began to become involved and also our expectations nowadays that our babies will be born healthy and live and that mothers too will survive the ordeals of bearing children.

New edition released.
Just for your information there is a new edition of this book out for 2008.

Scottish Midwives: Twentieth-century voices
This book is really good for anyone interested in Midwifery and history. I haven't come across many books concentrating on the history of the Scottish Midwife, and so this was an extremely pleasant surprise. It will make you reflect on what has been, and what is now. Not only when it comes to the labour itself, but the smaller things too.