The Best Country to Give Birth : Midwifery Homebirth and the Politics of Maternity in Aotearoa New Zealand 1970-2022

The history of a momentous change in New Zealand's maternity care.

Is New Zealand the best country to give birth? Historian of medicine Linda Bryder explores how New Zealand developed a unique approach to the role of midwives in childbirth in the 1970s, and analyses the consequences of that change for mothers and babies.

The Best Country to Give Birth? traces the genesis of the 1990 Nurses Amendment Act, which allowed midwives to practise alone in the community, back to the homebirth movement of the 1970s, and explores the aftermath of the Act including the withdrawal of GPs from maternity care. In investigating the consequences of the reforms, it uncovers repeated criticism of services and what were deemed preventable deaths from coroners, commissioners for health and disability, other health professionals including some midwives, academic researchers and consumers.

How and why does maternity care in Aotearoa differ from other countries? How has it shaped the equitable care of our mothers and babies? Why have critical reports had so little impact? This is a major historical account of an issue at the heart of our maternity care.