Professional Midwives

ABSTRACT

Almost four out of every five Peruvian babies are ushered into the world with the assistance of a midwife. But only one of these four is entrusted to the hands of a midwife trained in asepsis and the other basic elements of modern maternity care. The fetal and maternal loss that results from unskilled maternity care is enormous, and all the more tragic because it could so easily be prevented. Should the manpower study consider only the supply of, and demand for, trained midwives, or should the untrained empiric also be included? (AU) These issues will be discussed in this chapter.