A Matter of the Quality of Birth: Mothers and Midwives Shackled by the Medical Establishment and Pennsylvania Law

Authors

Dale Elizabeth Walker

Abstract

Recent studies have revealed that advances in medical technology, when indiscriminately applied, increase the risk of complications for mothers and infants during labor and delivery. This comment explores the historical development of midwifery regulation in Pennsylvania, and suggests that it is ripe for challenge on constitutional grounds to counter the dangers posed by a pathological approach to childbirth which is associated with the medical establishment. The author contends that a legal environment conducive to the practice of midwifery would solve the problems created by high cost, high-tech birthing techniques.

First Page

171

Recommended Citation

Dale E. Walker, A Matter of the Quality of Birth: Mothers and Midwives Shackled by the Medical Establishment and Pennsylvania Law, 23 Duq. L. Rev. 171 (1984).
Available at: https://dsc.duq.edu/dlr/vol23/iss1/7