Would love to hear ideas, opinions, thoughts on this topic. Are you interested? Do you find this relevant? Do you as midwives and student midwives place yourself or desire to place yourself within the context or role of public health provider?
What
role do midwives play in public health?
The
role of midwives within overall healthcare is seen to vary across nations. In
some countries, UK and Canada, midwives are integrated into the overall
maternity care system. In the UK for instance, midwives are the state mandated
care providers for all normal healthy low risk women, the place of birthplace
is irrelevant to the choice of care provider. In the US, midwifery varies from
being fully integrated (CNM’s and CPM’s in some states) to unregulated and in
some states the practice of midwifery is illegal.
Midwives,
if placed within the context of public health are in a unique position to
screen women for psycho-social, and disease and illness risk factors, in
addition to providing prenatal care. Pregnancy is a period of a woman’s life in
which she will seek out the routine care of a primary health provider. Midwives
have the unique opportunity to help women at a most critical period in their life.
The
following is a historical review of the evolution of women’s health framed in
the context of public health promotion. Through this review we will see how
public policy has become shaped by the understanding women’s health is shaped
by the biological determinants of a women’s biological. Understanding the
specific demands that are placed on a woman, both physical and socially will
help improve the health of women and in return the overall health of a
population. Health professionals and policy makers, must focus their efforts in
culturally appropriate ways in order to significantly improve upon the
integration of preventative care in health promotion.
Through
investigating the role of midwives in public health, I aim to show that even in
the US, midwives are actively filling an integral
role in maternity care and to differing degrees, general well woman care. The
aim is to legitimize the place of midwives within a healthcare system, both in
the eyes of the midwives themselves, but as well by other healthcare
professionals and the community at large.
I
seek to frame the context of this discussion in the ambitions set forth in the
Ottawa Charter presented at the First International Conference on Health
Promotion (1986), which first defined public health and initiated a platform
for countries to implement public health. In addition, there will be a brief
discussion of the numerous reports and bills that have come out in recent years
including the Millennium Development Goals, the Global Strategy for Women’s and
Children’s Health, the State of the World’s Midwifery Report, the Affordable
Care Act and more recently the agreements set forth in the Home Birth Consensus
Summit that took place in Oct. 2011, It is my goal with this discussion to
illustrate what is being done and has been achieved, while identifying areas of
requiring further improvement.
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