Midwifery in the 21st century: Recommendations from the Pew Health Commission/UCSF Center for the Health Professions 1998 Task Force on Midwifery

Unprecedented changes in the delivery and financing of health care have pro duced angst and opportunity, criticism, and innovation. To explore the effe cts of these market-driven changes on midwifery, the University of Californ ia at San Francisco Center for the Health Professions convened a Taskforce on Midwifery in 1998. Consisting of eight experts from across the country, the Taskforce was charged with exploring the impact of health care system d evelopments on midwifery, and identifying issues facing the profession and the roles midwives play in women's health care. The Taskforce answered its charge by offering 14 recommendations related to midwifery practice, regula tion, education, research, and policy. The recommendations incorporate the Taskforce vision that the midwifery model of care should be embraced by, an d incorporated into, the health care system in order to make it available t o all women and their families. Midwives, educators, collaborators, and pol icymakers can use the recommendations to develop curricula, practice sites, and laws for an improved health care system that fully includes midwives a nd encompasses the midwifery model of care. (C) 1999 by the American Colleg e of Nurse Midwives.