Doubling Back Over Roads Once Traveled: Creating a National Organization for Nurse‐Midwifery

The quest for a new national organization began in 1940 and concluded in November 1955 in Kansas City, Missouri, with the founding meeting of the American College of Nurse-Midwifery. This article looks at the conflicts with organized nursing about the place and role of nurse-midwives in the newly reorganized American Nurses Association and the National League for Nursing. Discussions and disagreements within nurse-midwifery over the need for a nonexclusive national organization that would set professional standards are examined.