This 36 minute long interview of Joan Donley by Dr Brian Edwards was recorded for Radio New Zealand in 1997 when Joan Donley was 81 years old. (The opening sentence of the interview has not been captured.)

Gillian White, Joan Donley and Bronwen Pelvin, 1996 (left to right). Photographer: Glenda Stimpson

It includes discussion on Joan’s early life and father, natural medicine, nursing as a natural process, midwifery in Canada in 1930s, marriage, registration at St Helens, New Zealand China Society, Peace Council, Vera Ellis, medical and midwifery model of birth, midwifery history, 1904 midwifery independent practitioners, obstetric nurses, Doris Gordon, Twilight Sleep, cascade of interventions, obstetric nurses, domiciliary midwives, 1971 Midwives Act, medical supervision, Nurses Association, power and control, hospital midwives, lunatic fringe, politics and midwives, global witch hunt, media, cerebral palsy, power struggle with doctors, Section 51, Social Security Act 1938, Health and Disability Act 1993, midwifery autonomy 1990, fee for service, philosophical differences, midwifery model of childbirth, physiological process, medical model, interventions, danger, epidural, home birth women, health, beliefs, genetic abnormalities, junk food, environmental pollutants, essential fatty acids and brain development, vitamins and minerals, fear, contribution to gene pool, painless childbirth, summary of conversation, nutrition, rickets, barber surgeons, contraception pill and pelvic development, caesarean section, maternal mortality rates, septic abortions, antibiotics, healthy birth, courage, support for birth and afterwards, pain relief, warm baths, acupuncture, back rubs, massage, payment of midwifery services, National Women’s Hospital, disbursements for CHE midwives, doctors and antenatal care, preventative care, continuity of maternity care, midwife and labour care, zealotry, home birth choice, decision making in labour, granddaughter, self care.