Assailed at Home; Champions Abroad: The ACNM’s Push for Maternal Healthcare Advancements in Nigeria

In 1982, the American College of Nurse Midwives (ACNM) created a Special Projects Section (SPS) whose goal was to combat deteriorating maternal and infant health, improve the lives of women, and advance the field of midwifery. By the late 1980s, the SPS adopted an increasingly international focus with notable Safe Motherhood projects in Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, and Kenya aimed at combating maternal deaths, promoting family planning services, and strengthening midwifery programs. At the backdrop of these international projects was a maternal healthcare crisis in the US and a sustained rift between nurse-midwives and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) over the legality, scope, and practice of midwifery in America. Drawing from multiple sources, notably the NLM’s extensive collection on the American College of Nurse-Midwives, I examine the ACNM’s maternal and reproductive health advocacy work in Nigeria during the 1980s and 1990s while fighting for autonomy, recognition, and better maternal welfare policies at home.