Midwifery:-
Midwifery is a health care profession in which Midwives provide care to child bearing women during pregnancy , labor and childbirth and also during postpartum period. They also help in care of the new born for their healthy growth and development .
* Midwife :-
Midwife is a person " who has been admitted to a regular Midwifery educational program, duly recognised by the country in which it is located , has successfully completed the prescribed course of studies in midwifery and has acquired the requisite qualifications to be registered and/or legally licensed to practice Midwifery " .
* Scope of Midwifery :
The role of a nurse in obstetrical care is diverse - the difference lies in the scope of practice and responsibilities. These are described here -
• Teacher / educator : -
Assesses educational needs of mothers and infants based on the data collected for health promotion, meternal care , infant care , postnatal care and family planning throughout the child bearing age .
• Nurse manager. :-
Prioritises client's needs, gives care with minimum input and maximum output , coordinates health care facilities and maintains Midwifery care standards .
• Nurse advocate :-
Act as a advocate between the client and the healthcare delivery system and encourages client awareness, talks about rights and responsibilities.
•. Nurse recharcher :-
Encourages evidence - based practice in Midwifery , participates and conducts Midwifery research and evaluates current protocols and recent research findings for their application in practice .
Clinical nurse specialist is an expert in maternity nursing who serves as a role model of excellence in knowledge and clinical practice of Midwifery . She provides high quality individualized care to women and newborn and performs the role of neonatal nurse in neunate intensive care unit (NICU), high - risk pregnancy units and gynecological units .
As a political activist, a midwife serves as an active member of professional organisation. She implements all governmental programs for maternal and child (MCH) care at the grass root level . She also keeps a track of the current health care policies regarding women's health .
As a change agent , she encourages women empowerment and stimulates awareness among women .
• Education and counseling on sexual health and provision of contraceptive methods .
• Provision of support,care and advice during pregnancy , labor and postpartum period.
• Conducting births is the responsibility of the midwife.
•. The provision of care of the newborn and the infant. Midwifery care is provided in any setting including the home , community hospital , clinic or health unit , depending on how maternity care is organised within a given country .
Midwifery is as old as the history of human species . Archeological evidence of a women squatting in childbirth supported by another women from behind demonstrates the existence of Midwifery in 500 BC. In the Bible , in the old testament, genesis 35:/7". It came to pass , where she was in hard labor; that the midwife said unto her , fear not Rachael, it is another boy." In exodus 1:15, it is recorded that king of Egypt spoke to the shiprah and puah , the two midwives, who helped Hebrew women when they gave birth . These two midwives are the first midwives founded in the literature .
Hippocrates (460 BC) , the father of scientific medicine, organized training and supervised midwives. Hippocrates believed that the fetus had to fight it's way to come out of the womb and membranes .
Aristotle (384-382 BC) , the father of embryology, described the uterus and female pelvic organs. He also discussed the essential qualities of the midwives .
Soranus, in the second century, was the first to specialise in obstetrics and gynaecology. He used a vaginal speculum and advised on cord care. In 1513, the first book on Midwifery was printed in Germany based on the teachings of Soranus.
From 5th to 15th centuries, which was the period of decline of Roman Empire, untrained midwives controlled the practice of Midwifery.
Leonardo Da Vinci (1452 -1519) made anatomical drawings of pregnant uterus . Ambrose Pare(1510 -1590) laid the foundation of modern obstetrics. He performed internal podalic version. He was first to deliver a woman in bed instead of the birthing stools.He also sutured perineal lacerations. Ambroise Pare founded a school for midwives in Paris, France . Louise Bourgeois, Midwife trained by Pare, attended the ladies of the French court. She warned midwives against getting infected with syphilis and transmitting it to other women . She recommended induction of labor for pelvic contraction .
William Harvey(1578 - 1657) the father of British Midwifery, wrote the first English text book on Midwifery . He described the fetal circulation and placenta and was the first to deliver the placenta by massaging the uterus . He described the raw placental surface and initiated the study of uterine sepsis . Women remained largely reluctant to be delivered by men during this period. Midwives didn't usually seek medical aid until the labor was hopelessly obstructed,as in the case of gross pelvic deformities. The resultant death of mother or gave physician unwarranted reputation .
Julius Caesar wrote the first book for Italian midwives which can ran in 17th edition . He advised cesarean section for contracted pelvis . The French king Louise, in 1663,employed a Paris surgeon to attend one of his mistresses and pleased with the result , the king honoured the surgeon with the title "accoucheur"William Smellie (1697 - 1763) is called the Father of British Midwifery. Charles White in 1773 stated puerperal fever was infectious . He used lime as disinfectant, and clean linen , isolation , adequate ventilation and setting posture to facilitate drainage .
Laennec in 1816 invented a stethoscope. James Young Simpson in 1847, used chloroform in obstetrics for anesthesia for the first time . Florence Nightingale in 1862, organized a small training school in connection with King's College Hospital,where she conducted training for midwives . Louis Pasteur in 1879 wrote a thesis on puerperal sepsis demonstrating the presence of streptococci in the lochia blood and in fatal cases in the peritoneal cavity . Spencer and Ballantyne promoted the concept of antenatal care for pregnant women . The first antenatal clinic was started about the time of the first world war . In 1876 , Porto formed subtotal hysterectomy . Max Sanger in 1882, first sutured the uterine walls .
In 1912, Kronig introduced lower segment vertical incision and it was popularized by Delete(1922) . Munro Kerr in 1926, introduced the present techniques of lower segment cesarean operation and popularized it . In 1940, the first book was translated into English. For a century and half , it was the only book on Midwifery in English . During this period, doctors were rigidly excluded from labor rooms and midwives assisted women in labor. Vesalius in 1953, opened the full term pregnant uterus in a lower animal, extracted the fetus and demonstrated uterus as a single chamber organ . The history of cesarean section dates back to 715 BC and the operation derivatives it's name from the notification"lex caesarean"-a Roman law, which was followed even during Caesar's reign . The law provided for an abdominal delivery either in a dying women with a hope to get a live baby or to perform postmortem abdominal delivery for a separate burial . The Operation does not derivatives it's name from the birth of Caesar,as his mother lived long time,after his birth . The origin of the word "cesarean"is also related to a Latin verb "caedere"which means 'to cut'. Chamberlain in 1975 designed obstetrics forceps.
•. Clinical nurse specialist :-
Clinical nurse specialist is an expert in maternity nursing who serves as a role model of excellence in knowledge and clinical practice of Midwifery . She provides high quality individualized care to women and newborn and performs the role of neonatal nurse in neunate intensive care unit (NICU), high - risk pregnancy units and gynecological units .
• Political activist :-
As a political activist, a midwife serves as an active member of professional organisation. She implements all governmental programs for maternal and child (MCH) care at the grass root level . She also keeps a track of the current health care policies regarding women's health .
•. Change agent :-
As a change agent , she encourages women empowerment and stimulates awareness among women .
The ICM (International confederation of Midwives) recognises the scope of Midwifery practice to include :-
• Education and counseling on sexual health and provision of contraceptive methods .
• Provision of support,care and advice during pregnancy , labor and postpartum period.
• Conducting births is the responsibility of the midwife.
•. The provision of care of the newborn and the infant. Midwifery care is provided in any setting including the home , community hospital , clinic or health unit , depending on how maternity care is organised within a given country .
* History of Midwifery :-
Midwifery is as old as the history of human species . Archeological evidence of a women squatting in childbirth supported by another women from behind demonstrates the existence of Midwifery in 500 BC. In the Bible , in the old testament, genesis 35:/7". It came to pass , where she was in hard labor; that the midwife said unto her , fear not Rachael, it is another boy." In exodus 1:15, it is recorded that king of Egypt spoke to the shiprah and puah , the two midwives, who helped Hebrew women when they gave birth . These two midwives are the first midwives founded in the literature .
Hippocrates (460 BC) , the father of scientific medicine, organized training and supervised midwives. Hippocrates believed that the fetus had to fight it's way to come out of the womb and membranes .
Aristotle (384-382 BC) , the father of embryology, described the uterus and female pelvic organs. He also discussed the essential qualities of the midwives .
Soranus, in the second century, was the first to specialise in obstetrics and gynaecology. He used a vaginal speculum and advised on cord care. In 1513, the first book on Midwifery was printed in Germany based on the teachings of Soranus.
From 5th to 15th centuries, which was the period of decline of Roman Empire, untrained midwives controlled the practice of Midwifery.
Leonardo Da Vinci (1452 -1519) made anatomical drawings of pregnant uterus . Ambrose Pare(1510 -1590) laid the foundation of modern obstetrics. He performed internal podalic version. He was first to deliver a woman in bed instead of the birthing stools.He also sutured perineal lacerations. Ambroise Pare founded a school for midwives in Paris, France . Louise Bourgeois, Midwife trained by Pare, attended the ladies of the French court. She warned midwives against getting infected with syphilis and transmitting it to other women . She recommended induction of labor for pelvic contraction .
William Harvey(1578 - 1657) the father of British Midwifery, wrote the first English text book on Midwifery . He described the fetal circulation and placenta and was the first to deliver the placenta by massaging the uterus . He described the raw placental surface and initiated the study of uterine sepsis . Women remained largely reluctant to be delivered by men during this period. Midwives didn't usually seek medical aid until the labor was hopelessly obstructed,as in the case of gross pelvic deformities. The resultant death of mother or gave physician unwarranted reputation .
Julius Caesar wrote the first book for Italian midwives which can ran in 17th edition . He advised cesarean section for contracted pelvis . The French king Louise, in 1663,employed a Paris surgeon to attend one of his mistresses and pleased with the result , the king honoured the surgeon with the title "accoucheur"William Smellie (1697 - 1763) is called the Father of British Midwifery. Charles White in 1773 stated puerperal fever was infectious . He used lime as disinfectant, and clean linen , isolation , adequate ventilation and setting posture to facilitate drainage .
Laennec in 1816 invented a stethoscope. James Young Simpson in 1847, used chloroform in obstetrics for anesthesia for the first time . Florence Nightingale in 1862, organized a small training school in connection with King's College Hospital,where she conducted training for midwives . Louis Pasteur in 1879 wrote a thesis on puerperal sepsis demonstrating the presence of streptococci in the lochia blood and in fatal cases in the peritoneal cavity . Spencer and Ballantyne promoted the concept of antenatal care for pregnant women . The first antenatal clinic was started about the time of the first world war . In 1876 , Porto formed subtotal hysterectomy . Max Sanger in 1882, first sutured the uterine walls .
In 1912, Kronig introduced lower segment vertical incision and it was popularized by Delete(1922) . Munro Kerr in 1926, introduced the present techniques of lower segment cesarean operation and popularized it . In 1940, the first book was translated into English. For a century and half , it was the only book on Midwifery in English . During this period, doctors were rigidly excluded from labor rooms and midwives assisted women in labor. Vesalius in 1953, opened the full term pregnant uterus in a lower animal, extracted the fetus and demonstrated uterus as a single chamber organ . The history of cesarean section dates back to 715 BC and the operation derivatives it's name from the notification"lex caesarean"-a Roman law, which was followed even during Caesar's reign . The law provided for an abdominal delivery either in a dying women with a hope to get a live baby or to perform postmortem abdominal delivery for a separate burial . The Operation does not derivatives it's name from the birth of Caesar,as his mother lived long time,after his birth . The origin of the word "cesarean"is also related to a Latin verb "caedere"which means 'to cut'. Chamberlain in 1975 designed obstetrics forceps.
