Over the years, we have witnessed a growing evidence basis for a unique midwifery perspective on sexual, reproductive, maternal and newborn care, including data confirming the safety of homebirth, the importance of continuity of care and carer, and the value of a noninterventionist approach for facilitating intrapartum care. However, this convincing biomedical and epidemiological research—supporting the value of uninterrupted, physiological birth—has not resulted in clinical change largely, we argue, because of the marginalized position of midwifery globally. We intend to change that.

We envision a Critical Midwifery Studies that uses three principles to guide the development of a theoretical framework for analyzing injustice in SRMN care:

1. Critical Midwifery Studies engages and collaborates with rapidly developing fields within critical theory (examples are intersectional, transnational, and postcolonial feminisms, critical race theory, queer studies, , decolonial and postcolonial theories, and care ethics).

2. Critical Midwifery Studies is midwifery-led. “Midwifery” is understood broadly, including all practitioners offering relational and inclusive care from a biopsychosocial perspective throughout pregnancy and childbirth.

3. Critical Midwifery Studies is self-critical. It reflects on the role of midwifery, midwives, and other midwifery practitioners in shaping, causing, maintaining, sustaining, and (re)producing injustice in the content and conduct of research, education, administration, regulation, and practice.

Critical Midwifery Studies, as we envision it, aims to inspire midwifery thinkers and scholars to develop the theoretical foundations needed to confront systemic injustice in SRMN care. We call on midwives, and other midwifery practitioners, scholars, and theorists to join our effort to achieve just and equitable SRMN care by developing Critical Midwifery Studies as an explicit field of academic inquiry and emancipatory praxis.

Join us