Findings from our case studies of countries in
economic transition show that care led mainly by
obstetricians without the balance midwives bring to the
health system might reduce mortality and morbidity, but
might also reduce quality and increase cost. Beyond the
eff ect on some women and infants of unnecessary
interventions, the economic costs of such systems of care
are likely to be unsustainable.19 For example, the cost of
unnecessary interventions in maternity care in the USA
has been estimated at around $18 billion annually.185 The
case studies also suggest a need for a whole-system
solution, rather than a focus on one component of
maternal and newborn care, such as the centralisation of
services in hospitals in the absence of well developed
community-based services. Implementation of midwifery
without adequate education, regulation, support, and
referral systems is likely to be ineff ective, as Van
Leberghe and colleagues show in the example of
Indonesia in this Series.38
The sample size of trials and even meta-analyses in
maternal and newborn care are generally too small to
provide insights into mortality, especially maternal
mortality. To address this, Homer and colleagues, in this
Series,56 use modelling to estimate the eff ect of midwifery
on saving maternal, fetal, and neonatal lives. Our analyses
are not designed to identify the scale of the eff ect of
midwifery in diff erent countries; this eff ect will depend
on the resources available, the organisation of services,
and the skills and competencies of the workforce.
However, we have shown that midwifery can have an
eff ect on specifi c practices that can save lives, such as the
early initiation and support of breastfeeding in the fi rst
weeks of life. Continued breastfeeding has the potential
to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of infants and
to reduce health-care costs.16,186 Our Review has shown
that midwifery can reduce maternal anaemia and
infection, including malaria and HIV, and pre-eclampsia
and eclampsia. Midwifery therefore has an important
contribution to make to meeting international goals for
both maternal and newborn mortality and health.21,22,187