Independent practice: a critical analysis and a personal journey.

This paper describes the personal journey of one independent practitioner as she moved from the environment of hospital practice and training to that of an independent practitioner. Many of the difficulties encountered on this journey can best be understood by reflection on the social, historical and political context in which nursing, midwifery and women experience their world. Critical theory offers midwifery the opportunity to more fully understand our worlds and to move beyond the dominant social order and reconstruct our social worlds in more just and liberating ways.