Midwives and Midwifery in the Independent State of Croatia

Abstract

This paper analyses the organisation of midwifery services and the position of midwives in the Independent State of Croatia from 1941 to 1945. Based on archival material from the Croatian State Archives, legal regulations, official publications, and relevant literature, the study examines the legislative framework governing midwifery services, the education and employment of midwives, and the everyday challenges of working under wartime conditions. Special attention is devoted to the continuity of legal regulations inherited from the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, as well as to the adjustments implemented in accordance with the policies of the Ustasha regime across the entire territory of the Independent State of Croatia. Midwives had their own professional association: the Midwives’ Association of the Banate of Croatia was renamed the Society of Midwives of the Independent State of Croatia in Zagreb. The Society operated under the supervision of the Ministry of Health, to which it regularly submitted reports on its activities. The paper highlights contemporary perceptions of midwifery as an exclusively female profession within the healthcare system, which nonetheless held vital importance within the framework of Ustasha principles. A well-organised midwifery service was expected to reduce high infant and maternal mortality rates and to serve as a foundation for the realisation of a larger and stronger nation. Particular emphasis was placed on the family as the basic unit of society, as, according to the prevailing ideological view, it was within the family that a »pure« nation was born, raised, and preserved. Support for the development of midwifery is evident in state-funded education for rural girls, including accommodation and provisions at the Midwifery School in Zagreb, as well as assistance in securing appropriate employment. The paper also emphasises key challenges, including staff shortages—especially as Orthodox Christian and Jewish midwives were permanently dismissed from service—difficult working conditions due to wartime shortages of qualified medical personnel, and the frequent necessity for midwives to perform nursing duties in addition to their regular work. Low wages further contributed to the situation, leading some midwives to perform abortions clandestinely for payment, thereby exposing themselves to penalties that were significantly harsher than those during the period of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.