Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1991, Qupperneq 137

LEIKAR OG LÆRDAR
141
Summary
In 1813 a Danish act providing compulsory
training and state registration of midwives
became effective in the Faroes. Nevertheless
the majority of Faroese midwives were
without formal training throughout the 19th
cent. From the midwives’ point of view, for-
mal training and registration involved a more
strict control by medical doctors and other
officials, and their income was very small
and regardless of their educational back-
ground until 1878, when they were guaran-
teed a minimum state salary, not least at the
urge of the doctors, who also acted as pro-
tectors of skilled midwives.
At the turn of the century, when the
communications with the outer world were
improving, a new generation of more self-
assured Faroes midwives entered the stage
who, inspired i.a. by colleagues in Denmark
and a dawning trade-unionism in the Faroes
began to organise and claim higher wages
and recognition by virtue of their profession.
Elin S. Jacobsen
Tórsbyrgi 13
FR-100 Tórshavn