Woman centred care : has the definition been morphing of late?

The International Year of the Nurse and Midwife (2020) provided us with many challenges, during what should have been a year of celebration. This Special Issue honours the contributions midwives make to excellence in caring for women and their babies. We include papers from around the world, with topics ranging from supporting women and midwives during COVID-19, to workforce, education, models of care, politics and much more. At the heart of our profession is the deeply valued philosophy of woman centred care. While there are many ways woman centred care is referred to (including erroneously as women centred care), it has roots in midwifery. Continuity of midwifery care is often seen as an integral part of this. Taking an example from Australia over the past 20 years, we call on midwives around the world to be vigilant about how this central underpinning philosophy can be changed in subtle but powerful ways.