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Midwives and Maternal Mortality: Evidence from a Midwifery Policy Experiment in 19th-century Sweden
[“Finite Population Causal Standard Errors.”]

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  • Louise Lorentzon
  • Per Pettersson-Lidbom

Abstract

This paper estimates the causal effect of a historical midwifery policy experiment on maternal mortality, infant mortality, and stillbirth during the period of 1830–1894 in Sweden. Exploiting sharp changes or “discontinuities” across time and place in the availability of trained and licensed midwives as an exogenous source of variation, we find that a doubling of trained midwives led to a 20%–40% reduction in maternal mortality and a 20% increase in the uptake of midwife-assisted homebirths. The results thus suggest that a 1% increase in the share of midwife-assisted homebirths decreased maternal mortality by as much as 2%, which is a remarkable finding given that midwife training was only 6–12 months at that time. The results of this study contribute to the current debate about the most effective strategy to reduce the unacceptably high rate of maternal mortality in many developing countries, especially in low-resource settings.

Suggested Citation

  • Louise Lorentzon & Per Pettersson-Lidbom, 2021. "Midwives and Maternal Mortality: Evidence from a Midwifery Policy Experiment in 19th-century Sweden [“Finite Population Causal Standard Errors.”]," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 19(4), pages 2052-2084.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:jeurec:v:19:y:2021:i:4:p:2052-2084.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/jeea/jvab014
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    Cited by:

    1. Marein, Brian, 2023. "Public health departments and the mortality transition in Latin America: Evidence from Puerto Rico," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    2. Volha Lazuka & Peter Sandholt Jensen, 2024. "Multigenerational Effects of Smallpox Vaccination," Working Papers 0251, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).

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