Premium
Sairey Gamp: generating fact from fiction
Author(s) -
Summers Annette
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
nursing inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.66
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1440-1800
pISSN - 1320-7881
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-1800.1997.tb00132.x
Subject(s) - demise , attendance , accreditation , autonomy , nursing , sociology , institutionalisation , public relations , medicine , political science , medical education , law
Australian midwives today are generally employed by maternity hospitals as obstetric or maternity nurses and specialize in only one area of the childbirthing process, under die umbrella of medicine. This is quite different to the provision of midwifery care in die nineteendi and early twentiedi centuries in Australia, when childbirthing took place widiin a home setting, widi a community midwife in attendance under die umbrella of die household. Australian midwives are now attempting to regain some of die autonomy diat diey believe was possessed by midwives of die past by being professionally accredited to operate as independent midwives. The de‐institutionalization of childbirthing cannot simply come about by giving midwives accreditation to operate as autonomous practitioners, as the forces diat led society to institutionalize child‐birdiing practices, as well as die avenues for change, are complex. This paper examines one of the forces behind diat change: the denigration of the image of the community midwife by the medical and nursing professions, through the character of Sairey Gamp created by Charles Dickens. By examining die historical terrain and the historical influences that led to the demise of the community midwife, we can provide answers for debate on the present status of the midwife.