Abstract
D.Cur.
The midwife renders a service to assist the individual, family, and\or community to
promote, maintain, and restore health during pregnancy, labour and the postpartum period. The nature of the service that the midwife renders is determined by law. The midwife is responsible and accountable for her actions and conduct. It is often expected of the midwife to take responsibility for a patient and to be accountable, although legislation does not support her function. In talking to other midwives and from own
experienceit has become clear that the legislation which regulates the practice of the midwife causes confusion and is limiting. As a result of this, midwives sometimes hesitate to act, neglect their duties or act outside their scope of practice. The aims of the study are: • to analyse the legislation which regulates the conduct of the midwife • to propose guidelines for new comprehensive legislation. This study has been conducted in three phases. In phase 1 focus group interviews were used to determine the problems experienced by the midwife. Phase 2 of the study consists of the above mentioned legislation. A survey of available literature is used in the analysis to test the relevance of the legislation. Various problems with the legislation are identified. The legislation causes confusion among midwives, limits her practice and is outdated.
In the last phase of the research, guidelines for legislation are formulated in order to resolve the current problems and to prevent the recurrence of problems in future. Recommendations for further research are made.