The Royal College of Midwives is the trade union and
professional organisation for midwives in the United Kingdom.
The College was founded in 1881 as the Trained Midwives
Registration Society, at the instigation of Zepherina Veitch, a
midwife from London, but shortly afterwards changed its name to
the Midwives’ Institute.  Its early years were dominated by the
campaign to establish the regulation of midwives and midwifery,
which was often opposed by the medical profession who saw
midwives as unwellcome competition. Despite this the Midwives’
Act 1902 was passed that established the Central Midwives’
Board, to regulate the training and practice of midwives and
which made it illegal for any unqualified person to act as a
midwife; a further Midwives’ Act 1936 established a salaried
midwifery service under the control of local government.  In
1941 the Midwives’ Institute changed its name to become the
College of Midwives; in 1946 it took over the Scottish Midwives
Association; and following the granting of a Roy