History and Objectives: Due to the prevalence of breast cancer and its complications and the necessity of cancer screening by health workers including midwives and lack of accurate data on the knowledge, attitude and practice of midwives, the present study was carried out on midwives working in the health clinics of Tehran in 1994.

Materials and Methods: A descriptive study was performed on 100 midwives working in the health treatment centers in Tehran. Data were collected by multi-stage cluster and then by simple randomized sampling method. Information regarding age, educational level, marital status, work history, family history for breast cancer, breast self-examination, breast examination of patient and questions regarding midwives attitude and knowledge via separate questionnaire were collected. The performance of midwives was evaluated with a corresponding checklist.

Results: Most midwives have a fair knowledge (41%), strong positive attitude (58%) and moderate practical skills (50%) on breast examination. A direct statistical correlation was found between knowledge and type of attitude and between knowledge and practical skills of midwives on breast examination. In addition, a close relationship was found between educational level and family history of breast cancer with midwives knowledge. A statistically significant correlation was found between breast examinations of patients with midwives attitude. However, there were no relationship between other characteristics and midwives knowledge, attitude and practical skills.

Conclusion: Since midwives have fairly moderate knowledge and practical skills on breast examination and due to the importance of breast examination in early detection of cancer further studies are needed to determine the effect of continuing education on the level of midwives knowledge and practical skills and their performance of breast examination.