title: "It's been a long road to acceptance": midwives in Rhode Island, 1970-2000.
abstract: A resurgence of midwifery came to Rhode Island in the 1970s. Midwives acted as modern health care professionals to conserve a traditional woman-centered birth, but the battle was long and arduous, from Dr. Ellen Stone attempting to eliminate midwives in the state in 1912 to doctors using the death of 2 home birth infants in the 1980s to undermine the growing presence of professional nurse-midwives in the state. Midwives prevailed when the state legislature passed measures in 1988 and 1990 increasing the power and authority of midwives, and when a federal grant in 1993 allowed the University of Rhode Island to open the first training program for nurse-midwives in the state.
authors.affiliation: Wake Forest University, Winston Salem, NC 27109, USA.
authors.forename: Simone M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Caron
mesh_terms: D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D008880:Midwifery / Q000266:history* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000458:organization & administration; D009721:Nurse Midwives / Q000193:education* / Q000266:history*; D012237:Rhode Island