Expanding the role of midwives in Korea.

167 http://kjwhn.org According to the State of the World’s Midwifery 2021 report, there are about 1.9 million midwives worldwide, but a shortage of 900,000 midwives remains. The workforce of midwives is insufficient in European countries, the United States, Australia, and Japan, where midwives help with childbirth, as well as in Africa, where the maternal mortality rate is high [1]. In Korea, where 99.5% of newborns are born in hospitals, midwives are also facing a crisis due to the deteriorating circumstances in the field of obstetrics and gynecology resulting from the ultra-low birth rate [2]. As apprenticeships for midwives have disappeared, it has become difficult to train midwives. Midwives are also losing their jobs and closing birth centers in response to the decreasing number of midwife-assisted births, after an earlier period of growth due to the popularity of natural childbirth. Accordingly, this article was written to shed light on the role of midwives during the transition process of the Korean midwifery system and to explore ways of broadening the role of Korean midwives in the future by analyzing examples of the expansion of midwives’ role in other countries.