Entre copié-collé et créativité : quel destin pour les cadres sages-femmes ?

In the French public hospital system, as elsewhere, the midwife is a salaried employee like any other allied medical professional. The current situation developed over the last thirty years since the nomenclature decree in 1977 where the midwife was called a “chief” to the recent decree in 2007 where the midwife received the title of “heath care executive”! Although this legalistic hierarchic formulation has been largely ignored by the profession, midwives in France actually work under a professional tutorship since the discipline has no real recognized status. The solution to the identity crisis of the midwife profession in France depends on the recognition of the discipline by the University, and by the creation of new leadership patterns for salaried medical professionals. The issue includes the problematic of midwife schools and the future of health care executive schools which, according to the new diplomas delivered in 2006, might allow university equivalences.