Midwifery

Midwifery is a blanket term used to describe a number of different types of health practitioners, other than physicians, who provide prenatal care to expecting mothers, attend the birth of the infant and provide postnatal care to the mother and infant. Nurse-midwives (U.S.) may also provide gynecological care. Practitioners of midwifery are known as midwives, a term used in reference to both women and men (the term means "with the woman"). Most are independent practitioners who work with obstetricians when the need arises.They usually deal with normal births only but are trained to recognise and deal with deviation from the norm. If something abnormal is discovered during prenatal care, the client is sent to an obstetrician. Other midwives will deal with abnormal births, including breech birth.

Midwifery in Canada

Midwifery made a comeback as a viable birth option in Canada in the 1960s, along with other aspects of heath care reform that can trace their roots to that decade of societal ferment and change. After several decades of intensive political lobbying by midwives and consumers, regulated midwifery has become part of legislated health care in the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec. It will soon be legislated in Saskatchewan, Nunavut,and the North West Territories as well. Midwives in Canada have come from a variety of backgrounds, including nurse-midwifery, lay midwifery and direct-entry midwifery. However, they are all simply known as "midwives", regardless of their original training. Midwifery practice has become somewhat standardized in all of the regulated provinces: midwives offer continuity of care, choice of birthplace, and a focus on the woman as the primary decision-maker in her maternity care. There are several provinces that now offer midwifery education, which consists of a four year baccalaureate degree in midwifery, usually based in a university setting.

Related Topics:
Canada - 1960s - British Columbia - Alberta - Manitoba - Ontario - Quebec - Saskatchewan - Nunavut - North West Territories - Baccalaureate - University

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