Sharon wrote:
<Dear Carol,  My thoughts are that midwifery is an art, lets get away from
the 'science' model. >

Susan wrote:
<In some ways, I don't see that it matters. I have one degree that has a
science attached to it and I did fewer science and research and stats
courses for that degree than I did for another that does not have (but
easily could) science attached to the name of the degree.>

We have had this debate, on and off, within the Association for many years,
without actually publishing anything strong enough to be put forward as "Our
view".   While the arguments wavered to and fro between the two, the general
feeling within ARM is that midwifery is both an Art and a Science.  I know
this isn't helpful as far as designating a specific education course, but to
treat midwifery exclusively as an Art denies the definite body of knowledge
which explains why certain things happen in certain ways.  In just the same
way, to treat it exclusively as a Science denies the awareness of the wide
variation of individual differences which both women and their midwives
bring to the whole body of knowledge.  There are extreme dangers in taking
either path exclusively, but great gains to both sides when acknowledging
(AND USING!) the knowledge base of both.

Then there is the aspect of intuition - many experienced midwives have
written about this on UKMidwifery mailing list - how they acted in a certain
way when the situation and evidence seemed to point in a different
direction, and their intuition proved right.  Is this a Science or an Art?

In general, Science looks for absolutes, and is not satisfied until a
hypothesis has been either proved or disproved.  This is fine when the
variables are few, but midwifery deals with human beings, and the variables
can be infinitesimal - this is where the Art comes in.

Just my thoughts, and I'm not an academic so I may be very wide of the mark.

In sisterhood
Ishbel

from
Ishbel Kargar SRN SCM (retired)
Admin. Secretary
Association of Radical Midwives
62 Greetby Hill, Ormskirk, L39 2DT

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