Midwifery skills in the US were preserved through the era of birth hospitalization by nurse-midwives using an education and practice model based on British post-nursing registration midwifery. The largest group of midwives practicing in the US, certified nurse-midwives, maintained the nurse-midwifery model while British midwifery separated from nursing to match direct entry midwifery models in the European Economic Community. The midwifery model of care, which views menarche, pregnancy, birth

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... d menopause as physiological, culture-bound processes that need supportive caring, is opposed to the biomedical model which views these as periods of illness and risk needing correction. By becoming adept at the use of medical technology, US nurse-midwives adapted practice to gaps in care by expanding scope of practice to include gynecology, birth control prescription, perimenopausal care, and well-woman primary care. Like US midwifery, Chinese midwifery professionalized through increasing education and scope of practice. China faces unmet midwifery and women's healthcare needs with its change to a two child policy. This paper describes a midwifery model that is cost-effective in clinician education and practice that China might adapt to meet its increasing women's healthcare needs.