The NMC have produced standards of proficiency for pre registration midwifery education and those standards have been written in an academic language, for higher education institutions. Each student prior to being admitted to the profession must have achieved the proficiencies stated in the NMC publication. The purpose of this book is to provide students with material related to the standards of midwifery education. The students will be able to use the contents of this text and relate it to their own approved programme of midwifery study, as their programme of study would have had to comply with NMC s requirements. It will help student midwives appreciate how their own programmes have been designed, and why they are required to study and understand some of the subjects they are, or will be studying.