Interview with Irene Matousek, July 27, 1993

Interview Summary

Matousek sets out to define "what makes a nurse" referring to her aunt and grandmother, both nurse midwives. She emphasizes the importance of having a doctor present at delivery and talks about the introduction of nurse midwives/ physician assistants with advanced training into the medical field. She details the development of a state bill in California that established nurse midwives as physician assistants. This bill required the interaction with state legislators and medical professionals and presentations on the importance of legalizing the midwifery profession as a "separate entity from the nurses" or as "physician assistants". A different proposal was accepted. It was hers that started the process of introducing nurse midwives into the field of nursing. At the time, she was a member of the Joint Practice Commission on which she served until 1975. A nurse midwifery service was developed, an organization to support nurse midwifery. In the 1970s, California started CNMI-Consortium for Nurse Midwifery Inc. that remained active until 1991.

Matousek talks about ACNM-American College of Nurse Midwives. She remembers Mary Dunn (Santa Fe), Sister Patrick Catherine, Sister M. Theophane Shoemaker /Agnes Reinders; Kitty/Eunice Ernst, CNM, MPH, FACNM; Edie /Edith Wonnel , CNM, MSN, FACNM; Vera Keane, Aileen Hogan, Lucille Woodville, Sister Betty Daughtery, and Carol Dorey.

Interview LC Subject

Childbirth Maternal health services Matousek, Irene Matousek, Irene--Interviews Midwifery Midwives Nursing--Study and teaching

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