In this section: This year, why not enjoy a day out at a
National Gardens Scheme garden - you'll be helping fund the QNI
too! Providing vital funding for projects that help improve
patient care. Visit our nursing heritage website, a celebration
of District Nursing around the world since 1859. The picture
shows a midwife assisting a home birth during the 1950s, a
period when most births took place at home. Today only about 3%
of births take place outside hospital. Midwives have a vital
role in preparing women for the arrival of new life.However,
their role goes much further than delivering babies; they're
involved in antenatal and postnatal care, in counselling, in
offering support and education, and in helping mothers and their
partners prepare for parenthood. More midwives now work in the
community, providing services in women's homes, local clinics,
children's centres and GP surgeries. Others are hospital based.
To read some real life stories of midwives at work please see:
http://www.nhscareers.nhs.uk/midw