title: Independent midwifery challenges medical myth.
abstract: Midwives who have left the 'safe' environment of the NHS to practise independently offer women choice, continuity and control, Royal College of Midwives General Secretary Ruth Ashton told a business seminar last week. It was 'sad' that the only way women could be assured of personalised, individual care during the antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal periods was to look outside the NHS, she said. Independent midwives 'have shown us what can be done'.