L'ordre professionnel des sages femmes, une réussite de la réglementation professionnelle dans le secteur médical ?

The French Council of Midwifes probably constitutes one of the most remarkable professional organizations in the medical sector, since it so perfectly met the expectations that underpinned its creation. After the turmoil that shrouded the setting up of the College of Physicians, it drew on the regulation of the midwife profession, taking charge of a genuine mission of public service. Though legally a private person, it is therefore holding an expertise that is usually proper to the powers that be. The uniqueness of its mission, entirely different from what falls to the share of a trade union, leads it to have extremely varied duties. It is endowed with a regulatory authority allowing it to complete many administrative tasks (entry on the roll of the College of professionals, involvement in the drafting of the Code of Ethics, supervision of the policy concerning the ongoing vocational training of practitioners). It also fully participates in imposing sanctions for breaches of ethical trust by organizing disciplinary entreaties in its premises.