Midwives are primary providers of care for childbearing women around the world. In
midwife-led care, the midwife is the lead professional in the planning, organisation and
delivery of care given to a woman from initial booking to the postnatal period. Nonmidwife
models of care include obstetrician-provided care; family physician-provided
care; and shared models of care, where responsibility for the organisation and delivery
of care is shared between different health professionals.
Key messages
 Compared to other models of care, midwife-led care:
- Leads to fewer antenatal hospitalisations and instrumental vaginal deliveries
- Decreases the use of pain killers during labour
- Leads to more spontaneous vaginal births, and
- Probably has little or no effect on foetal and neonatal deaths, augmentation or
induction of labour, Caesarean sections, and postpartum haemorrhage.
 The studies included in the review were conducted in high income countries.
Factors that need to be considered when assessing the transferability of the
findings to a particular LMIC setting include the availability and training of
midwives as well as women’s access to other models of healthcare for pregnant
mothers.