Abstract
Theories of professions and healthcare organisation have difficulty in explaining variation in the organisation of maternity services across developed welfare states. Four countries - the United Kingdom, Finland, the Netherlands and Canada - serve as our case examples. While sharing several features, including political and economic systems, publicly-funded universal healthcare and favourable health outcomes, these countries nevertheless have distinct maternity care systems. We use the profession of midwifery, found in all four countries, as a 'touchstone' for exploring the sources of this diversity. Our analysis focuses on three key dimensions: (1) welfare state approaches to legalising midwifery and negotiating the role of the midwife in the division of labour; (2) professional boundaries in the maternity care domain; and (3) consumer mobilisation in support of midwifery and around maternity issues.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 722-737 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | Sociology of Health & Illness |
Volume | 27 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2005 |
Keywords
- cross-national comparison
- maternity care system
- midwifery
- welfare state
- inter-professional interests
- citizen's relations
- service users
- HEALTH-CARE
- SOCIOLOGY
- BOUNDARY
- FINLAND
- WORK