London 1954

Minutes in English, French and Spanish. Signed by Nora Bryane-Deane, M.B.E., ICM President from 1954 to 1957. See alsoSection H/1/1 for text (copy) of the Address.

The file contains general published information relating to the training and registration of midwives in England and Wales in the 1960s.

See alsoSection R, History of the ICM, for firther material relating to the history of the international organisation of midwives and precursor to the ICM; and Section U, Photographs, for photographs of the first Congress, President and founder members.

10 September 1954

1 file Paper

The first International Council meeting, held in London at Bedford College, Regents Park in September 1954 (first ICM Congress), at which the Constitution was adopted, including the decision that the three official languages of the Confederation were to be English, French and Spanish. Forty-six countries were represented, the "first time in history that midwives from all over the world had met in this way". The Executive Committee, Council and Secretariat were constituted, with the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) agreeing to host the Secretariat in Great Britain. The meeting agreed the proposal from Swedish midwives to hold the next International Congress in Stockholm in 1957.

The Inaugural Address to Congress was given by Professor J. Eastman, M.D., Professor of Obstetrics, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland, and Chairman of the WHO Expert Committee on Matermity Care. The title of the Address was The Midwife and World Health.

The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) played a key role in the establishment, organisation and administration of the ICM; see also the Midwives Chronicle and Nursing Notes, Official Organ of the Royal College of Midwives, vol. 67 (1954).