Threat to midwifery in Czech Republic: action from the Czech Association of Midwives and the Aperio-Health Parenting Association protests against parliament decision.

The Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic passed the 'Act on Non Medical Professions' on December 13, 2003. The majority of Czech MPs decided that the independent profession of midwife should not exist in the future and that, after the EU accession of the Czech Republic, women should be referred exclusively to the monopolist care of doctors when selecting the caregiver during pregnancy, at birth and after birth and that midwives should be subject to medical supervision.

Ivana Konigsmarkova, the chairwoman of the Czech Association of Midwives, described the decision as 'hardly understandable'. She pointed out that 'The approved version of the act is in conflict with the international definition of midwife, with WHO recommendations as well as with European directions and will result--when adopted in the wording proposed--in ... preventing the free movement of both the Czech and foreign midwives' labour force'.

The MPs decided on the liquidation of independent midwives' profession despite the results of a public opinion poll in 2000 revealing that 20 % of Czech women giving birth for the first time and 25 % of mothers with children under 1.5 years of age see the medical model of obstetric care as unacceptable. If these women do not have the right of choice after the adoption of the act it is to be expected that many of them will not observe the law as they consider it wrong.

'If women all over Europe have the right of free informed choice why should not Czech women have the same right...

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