Introduction
The first midwifery school in Tehran had a lot of instability in terms of organization until 1928. Sometimes, the school was administrated by the municipality, and sometimes it was under the supervision of the Interior Ministry. At the time the school was educationally and scientifically supervised by the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Interior was responsible for its organization and supply and allocation of credit. Also, by the year 1928, the school had no rules and regulations. After 1930, for the discipline and affairs of the Midwifery School, the Statute and its rules of procedure were approved by the Supreme Council on January 28, 1931, and the school became one of the branches of the medical school; and its affairs were subject to the National Health Department. Dr. Matild Dormpas`s contract was completed and Dr. Pen, another countryman of the Dormpas, was hired. The education at the Midwifery School was subordinated to the Ministry of Health and this ministry was organizing the affairs of the school.
To reach a written history of evolution and development of the midwifery school, it was tried to obtain more information about teaching midwifery until the establishment of Supreme Institute of Midwifery by using archival documents.
 
Regulations and programs of the Midwifery School after 1929
The Midwifery School did not have a special regulations until 1929. Generally, students and graduates of the Teaching Training Center were studying there. The entry requirement was the certificate of six year primary school education and knowing French. The period of study was three years. On September 18, 1928, according to the approved regulations about medicine, pharmacy and midwifery, the condition for admission to the midwifery school was changed. Having the three-year certificate of high school and passing a French language exam, were conditions for entry into the school.
The entry exam of midwifery school was held at the center on September 6, 1929. The test materials consisted of a basis of anatomy, natural delivery, a description of the pelvis and its contents, abnormal delivery, female diseases, health caring, breeding of infants, breeding of a sick child, and illnesses belonging to the pregnant women [1].
On January 28, 1931, the statutes and regulations for the school was passed by the Supreme Council of Education and the mentioned school which until this date was one of the branches of the School of Medicine, was subordinated to the Ministry of Health, and this ministry provided a program for the midwifery education. The entry requirement for the midwifery school was having five-year certificate of high school [2].
 
Statuary of the Midwifery School
“Article 1: The Midwifery School will have three classes.
Article 2: The teaching content will be as follows:
1. Anatomy [3[
2. Physiology
3. Anatomy of diseases
4. Breeding healthy and sick children
5. Pregnancy and general disease about pregnancy
6. Nursing
7. Specific women`s diseases
Article 3: Upon graduation, a certificate of midwifery will be given to the graduate from Ministry of Education.
Article 4: The certificate shall be signed, firstly, by the teachers of the school and the last exam board, secondly, by the head of the school, thirdly, by the head of the National Health Department, Fourthly, by the Head of Ministry of Education, and fifthly, by the minister of education.
Article 5: Persons who succeed in obtaining a certificate of midwifery shall swear in the presence of the exam board that they should act in accordance with the rules and regulations of the school.
Article 6: The articles of this statute shall, when necessary, be adapted and approved by the Supreme Council of Education [4].
Ministries of Education and Health, Iran National Parliament, Council of Health, No. 2481, Date: November 15, 1924.
To Respectful Ministry of Education and Donation: With honor, two minutes of midwifery students’ exams will be appended to the letter no. 8. Dated December 10, 1924 for the investigation of that ministry. The Head of National Health Department (Signature):
Date: November 22, 1928”.
 
Rules of Midwifery School
“Article 1: The school of Midwifery is governed by the Ministry of Education, under the supervision of the Head of National Health Department.
Article 2: The Midwifery school will have a head and a supervisor. The National Health Department will choose the head and the supervisor and these two jobs are honored ones.
Article 3: The duties of the head who will be the head of the Technical department of Maternity Hospital as well will be as follows:
a. Preparing and proposing the school budget
b. Proposing for the statutes and regulations of the school
c. Proposing for the election of teachers and school administrators
d. The implementation of the school statute and regulations
Article 4: The duty of the supervisor is to take care of the internal order and to maintain the furniture and school supplies.
Article 5: Teachers are required to test their teaching materials at the presence of at least two other examiners selected on the basis of the proposal of the head of the school and approved by the National Health Department.
Note The score of the student in each test item is the average of the scores that is given by the above-mentioned exam board (Figure 1)” [5].

Figure 1) Regulations of Midwifery School

School entry requirement
“Article 6: Entrants to the school shall have the following conditions:
a. Being at least 18 years old.
b. Entrants to the school must have a certificate of secondary high school approved by the Ministry of Education and pass the French exam.
C They shall not be known for moral corruption and are not guilty of criminal misconduct.
d. They shall not have transferable disease.
e. They should have ID card and certificate of Smallpox vaccination.
f. Completely obeyed by the school system and the instructions and regulations issued by the National Health Department” [5].
 
Exams
“Article 7: Every year, the midwifery school opens on the September 23^rd and will be ended on the end of June.
Article 8: the first half of the June would be the time for studying for exams, and the second half of this month would be allocated for the exams. The teaching of annual materials must be completed by the end of May.
Article 9: Reexamination of the failed students will be carried out in the second half of 1928.
Article 10: During the academic year, the students will take part in two exams; First exam will be on May 30 and the second exam will be on June 5.
Note: The average grade of class quizzes and final exam will be considered as a passing score for going to the next year.
Article 11: The score of the exam is from zero to 20, and the score of exams in which students are absent will be zero.
Article 12: if the average of annual scores for each course is less than ten, the final test is not accepted.
Exams for the first year: Anatomy, physiology, Anatomy of the Embryo, Pregnancy
Exams for the second year: Anatomy of Pregnancy Diseases, Breeding healthy and sick children
Exams for the third year: Diseases related to pregnancy, nursing, women`s diseases” [5].
 
Requirements
“Article 13: Each of the students must be present regularly at all hours of their courses and the field of clinic and polyclinic. For attendance and absenteeism, there will be a notebook in each of the classrooms that will be filled by the supervisor. The supervisor writes the name of absentees in each class, and on the weekend it will be sent to the National Health Department by the head of the school.
Article 14: Any student who is absent for one or two consecutive weeks without a valid excuse will be deprived of the final exams.
Note: Detection of a justified excuse will be on behalf of the head of the teachers.
Article 15: if one or more students violate any requirements, the detection of the error and determination of the penalty will be on the behalf of the National Health Organization based on the suggestion received from the head of the school.
The determination of the penalties for violation of paragraph (f) is in accordance with the proposal of the head of the school and approval of the National Health Organization that is proposed to the Ministry of Education for implementation.
Seal: National Health Department 1925” [5].
On August 11, 1929, the Ministry of Education, Donation, and Fine Arts sent the proposal for a statute of the Medical, Dentistry, Pharmacy and Midwifery School that was prepared by the head of the Medical School to the Supreme Council of Education. The provisions of this statute were as follows:
“Statute of the School of Medicine, Pharmacy and Midwifery and Medical Engineering and Nursing Classes
Article 1: The Supreme School of Medical Sciences include Medical, Pharmacy and Midwifery Schools and Medical Engineering and Nursing schools.
Article 2: The period of education in the schools and classes mentioned in Article 1 is as follows:
a. The education period for medicine is five years.
b. The education period for pharmacy is three years.
c. The education period for midwifery is three years.
d. The education period for dentistry is three years.
e.The education period for medical engineering is one year.
f. The education period for nursing is one year.
Article 3: The admission criteria for entering the schools and classes mentioned in the article 1 are as follows:
Admission criterion for entering medical schools is a six-year certificate of high school.
Admission criterion of pharmacy is three-year certificate of high school.
Admission criteria for midwifery is the six-year certificate of high school.
Admission criteria for the dentistry is the three-year certificate of high school.
Admission criteria for the medical engineering is six-year certificate of high school from a science branch.
Admission criteria for nursing is six-year certificate of the primary school.
Note: Applicants of midwifery school, in addition to the aforementioned certificates, must pass the entrance exams of physics and chemistry in French.
Article 4: The head of the Medical Schools is selected by the Ministry of Education.
Article 5: Technical and administrative staff of the School of Medicine shall be elected by the Ministry of education with the approval of the head of the Medical School and proposal of the Ministry of Education.
Article 6: After completing the education and passing the exams in accordance with the school program, the Ministry of Education will give the following certificates to the students of the schools and classes mentioned in the article 1:
a. Medical Degree
b. Pharmacy Degree
c. Midwifery Degree
d. Dentistry Degree
e. Medical Engineering
f. Nursing
Note (1): The mentioned certificate in the paragraph (a) of the article 7, is given to the students when he defends his thesis in the presence of a delegation of teachers appointed by the head of the school for this work, and the thesis should be accepted.
Note (2): the mentioned thesis should be about a medical or surgical matter and should not be less than 50 sheets.
Note (3): The minimum period for writing thesis is not less than 5 months, and until the students has not written and not defended the thesis, he will not receive a medical degree [5].
 
Regulations of the Supreme School of Medicine, Pharmacy, and Midwifery
The Regulations of the Supreme School of Medicine, Pharmacy, and Midwifery was proposed by Dr. Valliolah Khan Nasr, the Head of the Medical School and member of Supreme Council of Medicine to the Supreme Council of Education on September 18, 1928. The provisions of the Regulations were as follows:
“Article 1: The School of Medicine, Pharmacy, and Midwifery has two parts: administrative and educational.
The administrative part consists of the head, the deputy, the assistant, the secretary and the laboratories staff.
Chapter One: Administrative section
Article 2: The duties and authorities of the head of the school is as follows:
a. Preparation and recommendation of the school budget
b. Proposals and amendments required in the statute and school regulations
c. Proposal for teachers and school staff members
d. Implementing the school statute and regulations, and ministerial decrees
e. Maintaining the internal discipline and take care of school ethics, health and science issues
Article 3: The school deputy shall be obliged to execute all the orders of the head in due time and in the absence of the head, he shall be responsible for the performance of his duties, but to implement paragraphs a, b, and c, he need to have a special order of the superior.
Article 4: The School assistant is responsible for setting up the notes and filling of students` documents, and keeping the lists of assets and furniture, and maintaining the buildings and facilities of the school. The correspondence will also on the behalf of him.
Article 5: Teachers are required to always attend the teaching hours and, in the event of the offense, the amount due to the time spent in absentia will be deducted from their salary, and the delay of 10 minutes from the teaching time is considered as one hour`s absence.
Article 6: Teachers are required to attend formal examinations, whether in school exams or at the teachers` council according to the invitation of the head. Failure to attend the exams will be considered as one hour absence.
Note: Any teacher who accidently cannot attend on exam should notify the school in writing at least 5 days before the absentee.
Article 7: Teachers are required to teach the course they are entrusted with.
Article 8: if one of the teachers absent from the 5 consecutive sessions without a valid excuse, he will be considered as a quitter.
Article 9: if a teacher, with reasonable excuse, chooses to leave 5 sessions, he must obtain permission from the authority of ministry through the head of the school, and appoint a delegate. The salary will be paid to the appointed person during his absence.
Article 10: if one of the teachers becomes ill or becomes absent for unprompted reason, the head of the school will pay to a person who has been appointed by him and the salary will be payable by the school from the budget allocated for emergent situation.
Chapter two: Educational Section
The educational section of the School of Medicine, Pharmacy, and Midwifery is composed of the following parts:
Article 11: Teacher`s Council: The Council of Teachers shall be convened every two months under the chairmanship of the head of the school, and may, if necessary, be held at the request of the head or two of the teachers in emergency. The sessions are held by the presence of half as well as one more teachers and the vote of the majority is valid.
Note: in the second paragraph, the vole is valid when approved by the Ministry of Education.
a. The duties of the Council of Teachers are as follows:
1- Study of the order of scientific improvement and development of the school
2- Dividing program materials into different years
3- Passion for studying the school program and its constitution and giving suggestions to the school administrators.
4-An intellectual contribution to the school`s administration on matters to be addressed by the council
5-Investigating students` violations and determine their penalties according to the paragraphs d, e and f from article 17 of this regulation.
b. School library is subject to the use of school students and teachers and the national and the national and certified doctors at the available time. No book from the school library should be left except for the school teacher, and with the written permission from the head. Those who leave the book from the school, do not have the right to have the book more than two weeks in their possession.
c. School laboratories are allocated for the students of the School of Medicine, Pharmacy, and Midwifery. None of the laboratory equipment can be removed from the school.
Chapter 3: Admission of the students and their assignments
Article 12: Applicants entering the medical school shall have the following conditions:
a. Being at least 18 years old
b. Certificate of six year high school (science branch) and medical certificate
c. Entrants to the pharmacy school should have a certificate of three-year high school
d. Entrants to the midwifery school should have a certificate of three-year high school and pass the French language (the amount of knowing this language should be such that they can speak it and understand the midwifery books).
Note 1: the volunteers to enter each of the above schools should not be known as moral corruption, not to be convicted of a criminal offense or a crime and not have a teacher or state position.
Note 2: Entrants to the mentioned schools should not be afflicted with transferrable diseases or addicted to opioid use.
Note 3: the above volunteers must adhere to the rules of the school in full.
Article 13: Each student of the School of Medicine shall be present at regular intervals throughout class hours and in clinics and polyclinics and laboratories. For attendance and absenteeism of students, there will be a notebook in each classroom that will be filled with the assistant of the school. The assistant of the school will write the name of absentees in each course.
Note: Clinical courses will be available at the hospital in the morning, and the academic courses will be at school in the afternoon.
Article 14: Students of the pharmacy school, during the period of their study, must work in one of the prestigious and famous pharmacies of the city every day with the exception of lesson hours.
Note 1: the mentioned students must submit a letter stating that they have done enough miscellaneous pharmacy operations to the school office ten days prior to the examination each year.
Note 2: Acknowledgement of the contents of this paper is with school office.
Article 15: Students of the midwifery school should be present at the clinic and polyclinic courses every day in the morning and at any other time that is determined by the school.
Article 16: Any student who is absent for a week or two consecutive weeks in all courses without a valid excuse shall be deprived of the exam at the end of the year.
Note: Generally, acknowledgement of the valid excuses is with the school and every hour absence is equal to absence of a quarter of a day.
Article 17: if one or more students violate the disciplinary proceedings, the determination of the error and the punishment shall be with the head of the school, and the penalties given to the students shall be as follows:
1. Oral warning from the head of the school
2. Public reprimand at the presence of the teachers
3. Public reprimand at the presence of the student`s teacher and his or her classmates
4. Temporal dismissal from school
5. Dismissal from the school permanently with temporary prohibition of entering other schools
Determining the penalties mentioned in the paragraphs d, e, and f is by the council of teachers, and according to the vote of the mentioned council, a ministerial decree will be issued.
Chapter Four, Examination
“Article 18: Each teacher is required to examine his teaching materials with the presence of two other examiners. In the absence of the mentioned teacher, the head of the school can appoint another person instead of him.
Note: the student`s score in each test item, is the average of the scores given by the three mentioned examiners.
Article 19: After the end of exam session, the teachers` board of that exam session immediately form a meeting in which they determine the results of each exam, and write it in a paper. After being signed, the paper shall be submitted to the office of the school.
Article 20: the declaration of those who have passed the exam is the responsibility of the assistant of the school.
Article 21: The Supreme School of Medicine, pharmacy, and midwifery will be open every year from the September 23^rd   and will end in the end of June.
Article 22: The first half of June will be for study and review and the second half of this month is for examinations. The teaching of annual materials should be completed by the end of May.
Article 23: Examination may be made, in whole or in part, after the summer holiday. In this case, the exams will be held on September 6 to 21.
Note: This happens when a student has a justified excuse.
Article 24: Schools exams are two kinds: academic and practical. Academic exams are from courses in the school and the practical exams are from what has been taught at clinics and hospitals. The practical exams are always after the academic ones.
Article 25: During the academic year, teachers are required to administer a quiz in the second half of January, and students who are absent in this quiz without a valid excuse, will be deprived of the final exam at the end of the year.
Article 26: The score of the exam is from zero to 20, and students will fail in any course that they have been absent without justified excuse.
Note: mentioned students in articles 23 and 24 are deprived from the annual exams in June, but they can take the test for failures in Septembers.
Article 27: if the average annual score for each course in not more than 10, the student`s exam will not be accepted.
Article 28: after passing the lower year exams, students should participate in the next year classes and take the exams of that year.
Article 29: If a student fail in the exams held in June, and fail in the reexamination in next September as well, he must study the courses of the same year and he cannot study the courses of the next year.
Article 30: Each medical student must submit a confirmation from different parts of clinics of the hospitals that he has been present at the clinics and polyclinics regularly before entering the exam sessions.
Article 31: the exams in the medical school are as follows:
First doctorate, at the end of the second year; anatomy, histology, embryology
Second doctorate, at the end of the second year; physiology, physics in medicine, chemistry in medicine
Third doctorate, at the end of the third year
At the end of the fourth year: Part one: Practical medicine, minor surgery, local anatomy
Part two: General diseases and diagnosis, pharmacology
Part three: anatomy of diseases, pharmacology, microbiology
Fourth doctorate, at the end of the fifth year: part one: internal diseases
Part two: External diseases, oral and dental diseases
Part three: principles of treatment, Iranian pharmacy, nursing and legal medicine
Fifth doctorate, at the end of the fifth year, Clinical exams
Article 32: Pharmacy school exams are as follows:
First year exams: General chemistry, physics, botany
Second year exams: Organic chemistry, physics, botany, familiarity with spices
Third year exams: chemistry in pharmacy, familiarity with spices, nursing, animal science, microbiology, bio toxicology,
This regulations was adopted and approved at the 121th session of the Supreme Council of Education on September 18, 1928. [Seal] Secretary of Supreme Council of Education.” [6].
After the completion of Dr. Dormpas`s contracted practice, the National Health Department, needed a female physician that initially Dr. Fraskina started teaching. However, her teaching was met with student dissatisfaction and they wrote a letter of the Ministry of Education, Donation, and Fine Art:
“There is a bad situation in the school of midwifery, and there is no doubt that students did not utilize from the school`s program this year. When Ms. Dormpas left the hospital, the students were somewhat wandering and uncertain until Dr. Sarkisian was selected and appointed by honorabl Head of the National Health Department. After sometime, despite the fact that she was not eligible for teaching and I would warn this issue before, Dr. Sarkisian was chosen because there was no other female teacher. However, as expected, she cannot teach in any way, and recruiting an experienced and practiced female teach is necessary. At the time when the national health is under the chairmanship of a distinguished and efficient person like Dr. Loghman-al-Molk, it is requested from the respectful ministry to select a teacher deserved for this position for this school. Therefore, I would like to suggest that Mr. Hakim-al-Doleh recruit of one the specialized and experienced doctors in midwifery with the salary of 15 tomans per hour for teaching in the mentioned school. Otherwise, please conclude a contract with Dr. Dormpas again, or conclude a contract with Mademoiselle Pan who has been nominated by the Ministry of the Foreign Affairs” [7].
So, they negotiated with Mademoiselle Pen, native of France, and she accepted to teach midwifes with the salary of 1600 tomans for a year in the Maternal Hospital under the supervision of the National Health Department and under the nation`s regulations. Therefore, after the negotiation with the Ministry of the Interior, the following act was proposed to the parliament and it was approved.
“National Assembly, No. 19409, Date: June 6, 1928
The law authorizes the recruitment of Mademoiselle Pan, a French specialized in maternity diseases
The single article, The National Assembly, allows the Ministry of Interior to employ Mademoiselle Pan, specialized in maternity disease for a period of one year from the date of signing the contract with a salary of 1600 tomans. The specialized will be in charge of referral services under the guidance of the head of the National Health Department.
The contractual arrangement will be subject to the provisions of November 15, 1922.
This law contains one article and has been approved by the National Assembly at the 15^th session of May 1928 [8].
As we said, Mademoiselle Pan was initially hired to work in the Maternity Hospital, but later, from August 1, 1928, she started teaching in the midwifery school [8].
Earlier, it was mentioned that Dr. Kloonia, provided a detailed report on health status of the country in March 1, 1934 and presented it the head of ministers. In his report about midwifery school, he writes: “the members of the school have not also been changed. Only for teachers who are freely teaching, 150 Rials has been offered for 9 months of teaching as a help” [9].
 
First girls to go to Europe for continuing higher education
On December 26, 1925, the France Embassy announced to the Ministry of Education, in a letter that was signed by Mr. Benzen that as a result of its embassy`s activities, French supreme medical schools authorizes the certificates of graduates from the medical school in Tehran via  maintenance of French teachers in the medical school [10]. From that time until 1930, midwifery education was carried out in Iran, and with the offer of Yahya Gharagozlo, the Minister of Education, Donation, and Fine Arts, a total of 5000 Tomans from the budget for unprompted issues, was approved for sending some students to Europe for teaching education, midwifery and some other fields [11].

Figure 2) Sending a few students to Europe to learn midwifery

The first group of girls who were sent to Europe for higher education were three female high school graduated girls who traveled to Europe on January 20, 1931. These were girls were Miss Farzin, Miss Nasr, and Miss Shibani who were daughters of Mohammad Ali Farzin, Seyed Mohammad Nasr, and Abdolhossein Shibani (Vahid al-Molk) respectively, and the first Iranian woman who received diploma of Medicine in the abroad was Miss Homa Emamzadeh who received a diploma of Medicine from Medical University of Paris in 1936 [12].
Dr. Cloonieh, the Head of National Health Department, was charged in 1933 and 1934 to design and implement a plan for the country`s health reform. In his report, he suggested: “if five or six girls from the right families with sufficient knowledge go to the Europe, and become familiar with the task of the nurses in the houses of the important people, it would be useful. These girls will become the nursing teachers of other girls after coming back to Iran” [13].
On October 25, 1933, The Supreme Council of Education established rules for midwifes with diploma who had no doctoral degree. For midwives who had been attending midwifery school, only diploma and permission of midwifery was given and not a doctoral diploma in medicine. Accordingly, they did not have the right to interfere with surgery and in the permission had the statement “only permitted in normal delivery”. The purpose of this statement is that the midwife should not use the equipment and devices that a physician use at the time of delivery [14]. At the meeting on October 19, 1936, according to the article 8 of the amendment to the Budget law of 1931, based on decision of the Head of National Health Department, 300 Rials to maximum 700 Rials was considered as the wage of the midwives [15].
 
Heads of the Midwifery School
The Head mastering of the school from the beginning until 1931was for the head of the Medical School and Dr. Ali Khan Alim al-Molk Farahmandi was the head of the school. He was appointed as the head of midwifery school from the National Health Department in that year. From 1933 until December, 1936, Dr. Abolghasem Bakhtiar was the head who was dismissed and students and after him, Dr. Jahanshah Saleh was appointed as head of the school which was followed by the protest of the midwifery students [2, 16]. This incident has been reported in the following documents:
“Since that respectful ministry has always been interested in the progress of the public, especially the women, the students of the midwifery schools following the interval in their education, would like to tell you that the university has been directed for a long time under the supervision of Dr. Bakhtiar and as you know it has been improved in every issue that is the result of his perseverance. We do not want to explain the merits of our head, but we would like to declare that we are totally satisfied with him. We, students, believe that we have not had a more serious and better head than our former head.
[Reply]: The Head of Ministers, No. 10885, Date: November 25, 1936
To students of the midwifery. Your explained letter about Mr. Bakhtiar and his services during this period in the midwifery school was received. Mr. Bakhtiar has not been dismissed from the heading of the University of the Midwifery and as the past, the courses of midwifery is provided by him. However, since he has numerous occupations, Dr. Jahanshah Saleh who is not less educated and less knowledgeable than Dr. Bakhtiar has been appointed as the Head of Maternity Hospital.
Head of Ministers [Signatures]: Mahmood Parandeh and Ghavamzadeh” [9].

Figure 3) Students of the Midwifery School
 

Female principals and students of the Midwifery School
Female principals of the midwifery school until the change of the name of the school to Supreme School of Midwifery were: Ezat Malek Hessabi, Shams-al-Molook Hejazi, Aghdas Sinaki, Keihan Ghorban, Eshrat Safavi [2].
 
Renaming Midwifery School to Supreme School of Midwifery
On April, 25, 1935, an organization called Persian Academy was established to develop and complete the Persian language and the new Persian terms were set and replaced by the foreign ones. Elites and scholars in various disciplines joined the organization. On the same day, Mohammad Ali Forooghi (Zeka-al-molk) was selected as the head of Persian Academy and Adib-al-Saltaneh Samiee and Haj Seyed Nasr-Allah Taghavi were selected as deputies. Gholam Ali Radi Azarakhshi, the Head of Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Donation and Fine art, was selected as the Head of the Secretary of the Persian Academy as well. From the date of the establishment, the Academy pain attention to the introduction of new vocabulary which gradually used in different fields [18]. Some vocabularies that changed were the old terms for “nursing” and “Health” that were replaced by the new terms on December 13, 1936 [18]. It seems that by the proposal from municipality the old term for midwife (Ghabeleh) was replaced by a new term (mama) [19]. Thus, from May 6, 1936, the old term of midwife (ghabeleh) was changed to new term of midwife (mama) and the old term for school of midwifery (madresseh ghabelegi) was changed to the “Supreme School of Midwifery” [20].
 
Conclusion
There was no classic education of midwifery prior to the establishment of the Midwifery School in Iran. The self-taught midwifes did the delivery only by their practical experience which was transferred from one generation to the next one. Lack of knowledge of these midwifes caused the deaths of many mothers and infants. With the formulation of the regulations of the Supreme School of Medicine, Pharmacy, and Midwifery in 1928, and organization of the midwifery in Iran, there were significant advances in this regard and resulted in the coherence of midwifery courses in Iran.
 
Acknowledgments
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Ethical permission
Non-declared
 
Conflict of interests
Non-declared
 
Contribution of authors
 Ali Karimian (First author), all sections of article have been written by him (100%).
 
Financial support
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