page_title: Midwife
section_title: Midwives in culture
hierarchical_section_title: Midwife / Midwives in culture
context_page_description: A midwife is a health professional who cares for mothers and newborns around childbirth, a specialization known as midwifery.
  The education and training for a midwife is similar to that of a nurse, in contrast to obstetricians and perinatologists who are physicians. In many countries, midwifery is either a branch of nursing or has some links to nursing such as a shared regulatory body, though others regard them as entirely separate professions. Midwives are trained to recognize variations from the normal progress of labor and understand how to deal with deviations from normal. They may intervene in high risk situations such as breech births, twin births, and births where the baby is in a posterior position, using non-invasive techniques. For complications related to pregnancy and birth that are beyond the midwife's scope of practice, including surgical and instrumental deliveries, they refer their patients to physicians or surgeons. In many parts of the world, these professions work in tandem to provide care to childbearing women. In others, only the midwife is available to provide care, and in yet other countries, many women elect to utilize obstetricians primarily over midwives.
context_section_description: Shiphrah and Puah are two midwives in the Book of Genesis (6th-5th century BC). They are noted for disobeying the Pharaoh's command to kill all new-born Hebrew boys.
  Midwives is a 1997 novel by Chris Bohjalian. A midwife is arrested a tried when a woman in her care dies. It was selected for Oprah's Book Club and became a New York Times Best Seller. The TV film Midwives (2001) was based on it.
  Call the Midwife (2012) is a drama series based on novels by Jennifer Worth. It features midwives working in the East End of London 1950–1960.
  The Midwife (Sage femme, 2017) is a film drama about Claire, a midwife, and her late father's eccentric former mistress.
caption: Pharaoh and the Midwives, James Tissot c. 1900
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