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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 [log in to unmask] www.midwifery.org.uk