5. Professional issues in practice.

Becoming a midwife is the 16th series of'Midwifery basics' targeted at practising midwives and midwifery students. The aim of these articles is to provide information to raise awareness of the impact of professionalism on women's experience, consider the implications for midwives'practice and encourage midwives to seek further information through a series of activities relating to the topic. In this fifth article of the series, Jancis Shepherd explores issues of supervision of student midwives in perineal suturing, the practical and legal implications of misadministration of medicines and accountability issues.