The Society, whose President was Augustus Granville , lobbied for an officially authorized midwifery qualification, in order to stop potentially harmful incompetent practitioners. This concern over unqualified practitioners was prevalent in Britain until midwifery registration was instituted in 1872. The stereotype of the untrained midwife is shown clearly, for example, in an article that appeared in The Lancet in 1844, where a Devonshire midwife was quoted as saying the chield [sic] com'd footling, and as soon as he com'd down so fur that I could git at the string, I tied em, and cut em; and that was right wazzun it?

One of the midwives had already been ordered by the court coroner not to attend any more childbirths until given permission after attending a case of puerperal fever. However, she asked the advice of another doctor and attended a subsequent birth; on the strength of this defence the jury acquitted her. The second midwife was sentenced to six months in prison after attending a fever case and later assisting two more women in childbirth, both of whom subsequently died of puerperal fever.

Mary Louisa Gordon , who had qualified as both a physician and a midwife and had practised medicine in London since 1900, was appointed the first female prison inspector in Britain.

Stead's fellow journalist Samuel Jacques was sentenced to one month of hard labour. Rebecca Jarrett , the procuress Stead persuaded to help his cause, was sentenced to six months' hard labour, as was Louise Mourez , the midwife who verified Armstrong's virginity. Mourez died in prison.

Tranent (in an area where all ranks of society included both Catholics and Protestants, and which had suffered badly from famine conditions and outbreaks of the plague) had been a centre of witchcraft allegations before. The higher-class accused were three women and two men, including the midwife Agnes Sampson and a schoolmaster. A maidservant tortured by her witch-hunting master implicated Sampson, and the charges spread to one of Sampson's gentry clients and the sister-in-law of the witch-hunting master, who may have been targeted because of her wealth. Sampson herself was tortured and burned to death.

Christopher Smart and John Newbery , under the persona of Mary Midnight, issued a periodical entitled The Midwife; or, Old Woman's Magazine; they acknowledge the influence of Delarivier Manley .

The exam was open to women between the ages of twenty-one and thirty who could produce a character reference (in the form of a certificate), had passed a relevant course approved by the Society, and who had also attended, with supervision, at least twenty-five labours (this was more than required at the licensing examinations of most medical students). Even after passing through such rigorous gatekeeping, the midwife received a licence labelling her as skilled to attend natural labours only, thus clearly delineating the boundaries of this profession.

Stead did this in the course of research for the Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon. Others charged included Stead's fellow Gazette employee Samuel Jacques ; Rebecca Jarrett , a former prostitute whom Stead persuaded to help him buy the girl for his story; Bramwell Booth and Elizabeth Combe , Salvation Army members who had taken custody of the girl in France; and Louise Mourez , a midwife who had been used to verify Armstrong's virginity. All were charged with abducting a girl younger than sixteen from her parents. Stead, Jacques, Jarrett, and Mourez were also charged with indecent assault, stemming from the midwife's examination of the girl.

Such procedures were not unlawful if a surgical operation was necessary for the physical or mental health of the patient and performed by a medical practitioner, or if performed during labour or immediately after childbirth by a registered medical practitioner or registered midwife for reasons connected to labour or birth. Belief that the operation was required by custom or ritual was not to be considered adequate grounds.

Smart had already used his pseudonym (supposedly the name of a midwife) in journalism. Gender issues were again to the fore in his stage act. The programme included An Oration in Favour of Matrimony.

The College at this point began allowing midwifery practitioners on its Council. Around this time, male practitioners also began adopting the title of obstetrician over man-midwife, because of its scientific emphasis.

The society's mandate was to train enough midwives so that every mother in the country could have access to a qualified midwife. It also aimed to publish a national list of these qualified females. In contrast to Maria Firth 's earlier Obstetrical Association of Midwives , (which ceased operation in 1874), this society recognized the need to work harmoniously with the medical establishment.

The Office also added that many of these deaths were caused by puerperal fever communicated by the physician or midwife present at the birth. Dr William Farr , Statistic Superintendent, felt that well-educated and trained midwives might reduce this mortality rate, as well as giving unemployed women a profitable occupation.

The article was written by lecturers in obstetrics at the London medical schools. They believed that students should be required to spend six months, instead of three, learning about obstetrics and gynaecology; at least twenty of their lectures were to pertain to the diseases of women and children. They emphasized that practical training was not a priority; formal classroom instruction through lectures and the showing of specimens and drawings was. This emphasis on scientific theory aimed to move obstretics beyond the practical sphere of the midwife.

A midwife, Mrs Hall, who kept a private lying-in home in London, was indirectly implicated in this case. Her involvement further lowered public opinion of midwives.

Garrett had just received promise of this scholarship from Lady Katherine Amberley , whom she attended as a physician and midwife. The letter retaliated against The Lancet's continual attempts to dismiss the phenomenon of female medical students.

In its first report, the Select Committee on Midwife Registration simply came to the conclusion that there was a great number of incompetent midwives whose practice could prove fatal to their female patients. It recommended that male doctors should perform the medicalized portion of midwifery while women, as obstetric nurses supervised by doctors, should change sheets and attend to the patient.