Between 60-80% of deliveries in the developing world are attended by traditional midwives, usually nonliterate, older women who learned their skills through apprenticeship and experience rather than formal education and training. Even where countries have tried to replace them with young, literate, trained health personnel, traditional midwives continue to practice and their services to be demanded. Midwives can and do learn new concepts if they are presented in an appropriate way, and some will encourage family planning practice. They are rarely active recruiters outside their own clientele and cannot act as principle agents of change in a national program. However, as attitudes change, midwives can distribute family planning supplies, especially to women not reached by other services. The first attempts to involve midwives in family planning failed in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Program participants received little supervision; midwives' social status was not high in those areas. 8 factors are identified as determining the success of a midwife program: 1) government and/or health system support; 2) community support; 3) family planning role and contraceptive methods; 4) selection of traditional midwives; 5) training; 6) supervision; 7) remuneration; and 8) evaluation.