A midwife is a professional in midwifery. In addition to providing care to women during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum period, midwives may also provide primary care related to reproductive health, including annual gynecological exams, family planning, and menopausal care.
A midwife is a professional in midwifery. In addition to providing care to women during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum period, midwives may also provide primary care related to reproductive health, including annual gynecological exams, family planning, and menopausal care. Many developing countries are investing money and training for midwives and other community health workers so that they can provide well-woman primary care services that are currently lacking.[3]
Midwives are specialists in pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum, and well-woman health care. They are educated and trained to recognize the variations of normal progress of labor and deal with deviations from normal to discern and intervene in high risk situations, such as breech births, twin births and births where the baby is in a posterior position, using non-invasive techniques. When a pregnant woman requires care beyond the midwife's scope of practice, they refer women to obstetricians or perinatologists who are specialists in complications related to pregnancy and birth, including surgical and instrumental deliveries.[4] In many parts of the world, these professions work in tandem to provide care to childbearing women. In others, only the midwife is available to provide care, and in yet other countries many women elect to utilize obstetricians primarily over midwives.
Midwifery (also known as obstetrics) is the health science and the health profession that deals with pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period (including care of the newborn),[1] besides sexual and reproductive health of women throughout their lives.[2] In many countries, midwifery is a medical profession (special for its independent and direct specialized education, should not be confused with a medical specialty which depends on a previous general training).[3][4][5][6][7][8] A professional in midwifery is known as a midwife.
A 2013 Cochrane review concluded that "most women should be offered midwifery-led continuity models of care and women should be encouraged to ask for this option although caution should be exercised in applying this advice to women with substantial medical or obstetric complications."[9] The review found that midwifery-led care was associated with a reduction in the use of epidurals, with fewer episiotomies or instrumental births, and a decreased risk of losing the baby before 24 weeks' gestation. However, midwifery-led care was also associated with a longer mean length of labor as measured in hours.[9]
