Today's midwife tomorrow: A preview of the 19th International Congress of the ICM

Abstract

THE INTERNATIONAL CONFEDERATION OF MIDWIVES has taken the theme 'Today's Midwife Tomorrow' for the 19th International Congress which is being held in Brighton from September 13-18, 1981. The appropriateness of this theme will be apparent in the 60 and more papers to be presented by midwives from the 51 member associations of the ICM. Midwives in the United Kingdom have been discussing during the past five to ten years the 'changing' and 'extending' role of the midwife. The Nursing Education Research Unit of Chelsea College, London University has attempted to analyse the role and responsibilities of the midwife as a prerequisite to developing a curriculum for that role. Increased technology, hospitalisation for delivery, transfer home early in the post-natal period, an increasing demand for home confinement, consumer participation in decisions on the management of care, and an increasing emphasis on family planning, all influence the role and responsibilities of the midwife. These changes and developments are not peculiar to the United Kingdom, and the ways in which other countries are responding to them, and the role of the midwife in maternity care today and tomorrow, are extremely topical. However, the majority of childbearing women in the world do not have the care of a trained midwife or doctor and the efforts being made, particularly in the developing countries, to bridge this gap and achieve the World Health Organisation's objective of 'Health for all in the year 2000' is also topical, and some very interesting developments will be highlighted during the Congress. A feature of this Nineteenth Congress is that the majority of papers are being presented by midwives and have been offered by the individual midwives concerned to fit into the overall theme and subthemes. This is a new development, as in the past there has been a major input from doctors, since obstetrics and related subjects are so inter-related with midwifery. Another interesting development is that several of the midwives' papers result from research they have undertaken individually or as members of a research team. Six years ago at the Seventeenth International Congress in Lausanne one of the discussion groups tackled the subject of the role of the midwife in research, and at the subsequent Congress in 1978 in Jerusalem a special-interest session considered the progress being made' by midwives internationally in research. Perhaps in three years' time the majority of Congress papers will be based on research by midwives.