The context of midwifery care

Abstract

Whether the change is sought or resisted, and happens by chance or design; whether we look at it from the standpoint of reformers or those they manipulate, of individuals or institutions, the response is characteristically ambivalent. The will to adapt to change has to overcome an impulse to restore the past which is equally universal. What becomes of a widow, a displaced family, a new organisation or a new way of business depends on how these conflicting impulses work themselves out, within each person and his or her relationships. (Marris, 1986, p. 5)