INTRODUCTION Midwifery has been regulated and publicly funded in British Columbia since 1998. Midwives are currently concentrated in urban areas; access to care is limited in rural communities. Rural midwifery practice can be challenging because of low birth numbers, solo practice, lack of on-site cesareans and specialist backup, and interprofessional tensions resulting from the integration of ...

Inaugurated in February 1919 to provide assistance to mothers and children from underprivileged social groups, the nearly century-old Maternidade Pro Matre maternity hospital was an initiative of physician and philanthropist Fernando Magalhães and of feminist Stella de Carvalho Guerra Duval, with the support of society women from Rio de Janeiro. Its creation was part of a mother-child assistanc...