The present study was conducted to examine the significance of the emotions experienced by the couple when the husband is present at the birth. Semi-structured interviews both before the birth and at one month after the delivery were conducted with 25 couples who gave birth with the husband's attendance. The results were as follows:(1) Motivation: For the husbands, the major motivations for attending the birth were“to share the delivery experience” and “to share the moments surrounding the birth.” The main reasons given by the women for having their husbands present, were “to feel secure” and “to share the moments surrounding the birth.” In the majority of cases, it was with the initiative of the woman that the husband was at the birth.
(2) Expectations vs. Outcome: Both the women and their husbands replied that the experience had been as good as expected or better. They felt that the outcome of their birth experience was largely influenced by the support given by the midwives and staff at the medical establishment.
(3) Satisfaction: All of the women and most of the husbands were satisfied with their birth experience. Comparing the woman's self-esteem before and after the birth, a significant rise was found after the birth.
(4) Effect on Intimacy: Both the women and their husbands felt that the intimacy between them had increased after the birth and that there was a tendency for this intimacy still to be maintained at one month after the birth.

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A questionnaire was sent to 83 midwives to evaluate their assessment of their ability to provide care to their patients. Fifty three valid questionnaires were analyzed. All midwives had been working more than 3 years. The purpose of this study was to identify what skills the midwives felt they were deficient in so that they could be improved by continuing education. The following points were identified: 1. All midwives worked as the junior class managers and were eager to improve their educational and administrational ability.
2. Good maternity care was recognized as a total care requiring skilled technique and relaxed attitude. Although most midwives had experienced more than 100 deliveries, only 17 midwives (28.3%) expressed confidence. The midwives who did not have confidence in maternity careevaluated their technique as poor.
3. Two weakness were identified. One was coping with an emergency or abnormal situation requiring immediate and accurate judgement. The other was the mental and social attitude required to accept the client in an empathetic manner.
These results suggest that two types of continuing education courses should be held for young midwives. One of them is a simulation training of emergency and abnormal situations. The other is using case studies for educational review.

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The students-participated midwifery education performed through the exposure to the whole delivery process of pregnant woman is useful for students to learn how to solve the actual care problems and to understand comprehensively and systematically the midwifery health care skills and attitudes.
The present study was examined questionnaire responses of the 66 pregnant participants that student care during past 8 years for effective training.
The results were as follows: There was the problem because of the insufficiency for the informed consent at the beginning of practice and the home visit.
There was the problem because of inexperience for the professional knowledge and skills during

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[in Japanese]

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