Role of the midwife
The Role of a Midwife During Delivery: Holistic OB/GYN & Midwifery: Certified Nurse Midwives
The Role of a Midwife During Delivery: Holistic OB/GYN & Midwifery: Certified Nurse MidwivesAccepting New Patients. Schedule a virtual visit.
Midwives are becoming more popular in the United States. The American medical system has typically not included many midwives, despite their popularity in Europe. In fact, 75% of babies are delivered by midwives across the Atlantic as compared to 10% in the United States. However, as American women have started to become more interested in the natural birth experience and home birthing, the number of midwives assisting with delivery is rising.
With that being said, you might have questions about what a midwife does, especially if you’re used to the OB/GYN-guided system that most American women experience. How, exactly, does a midwife help you during delivery, and what should you be prepared for if you decide to take this route?
Are you pregnant and interested in working with a midwife during your pregnancy? If so, the health experts at Holistic OB/GYN & Midwifery can help with obstetrics and midwifery services. In this blog, our providers explain the midwifery process and the role a midwife plays during delivery.
What is a midwife?
A midwife is a trained and experienced health professional who helps a pregnant woman before, during, and after childbirth. Most midwives work with low-risk pregnancies for moms-to-be who want to avoid surgical intervention, epidurals, pain medications and/or drugs that induce labor, if possible.
Midwives are not doctors. This means that they can’t perform surgeries, but they can write prescriptions for epidurals and labor-inducing drugs. Many midwives work with preferred hospitals and birthing centers. Holistic OB/GYN & Midwifery’s preferred hospital is Hackensack University Medical Center at Pascack Valley in Westwood, New Jersey.
Before delivery
Like any big medical event, getting ready for delivery takes a lot of careful planning. Midwives offer prenatal medical care as well as holistic care to help keep your mind and emotions well.
In this way, they can serve as a counselor as your pregnancy progresses. A midwife will also help you make a birth plan, including where you would like to deliver, how you would like to deliver, and how you want to manage pain once that becomes a consideration.
During delivery
A midwife will provide support throughout the entire labor and birth process. This can include:
- Giving information, encouragement, and emotional support
- Monitoring progress and suggesting strategies to help during labor
- Monitoring the baby's heartbeat and vital signs
- Offering you pain relief or arranging for a doctor to administer it
- Getting extra medical help if needed
The role of a midwife also depends on location. In a hospital or birthing center, a midwife will work with your obstetrician and defer major medical decisions to them. With an at-home birth, the midwife will control the whole process unless medical treatment is deemed necessary.
After delivery
Midwives also provide support after birth. A big benefit of using a midwife is having a professional who knows you and your family and can help you through the first weeks of motherhood.
A midwife can teach you how to breastfeed, change a diaper, settle your baby, and bathe them. In the same way that a midwife supports you before birth, they are an excellent source of advice and care after delivery.
To learn more about midwifery, book an appointment online or over the phone with Holistic OB/GYN & Midwifery today.
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What do midwives do? | Pregnancy Birth and Baby
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A midwife is a health professional trained to support and care for women during pregnancy, labour and birth. They help you to stay healthy in pregnancy and, if no complications arise, to give birth with little intervention. Midwives also care for you and your baby in the first few weeks following the birth.
What is a midwife?
Traditionally, midwives were nurses who underwent extra study. Now, midwives can become qualified by doing a 3-year university degree without needing to study nursing first.
Practising midwives must register with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia. Some have extra qualifications and can prescribe certain medications, or practise privately. Private midwives must also register with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA).
In Australia, while both men and women can practise as midwives, most of those currently working are women.
Where do midwives work?
Midwives operate in many settings, including hospital maternity units, birth centres, obstetrician's consulting rooms, midwifery group practices, community health centres and in private homes. Where you see a midwife will depend on where and how you choose to give birth.
If you live in a rural or remote area, your choice of birth facility might be limited.
You might see a midwife (or doctor) at a local community health service. You may also need to travel to a hospital with a maternity unit for the birth.
Midwifery care in a public hospital and birth centre is covered by Medicare. If you have a home birth, Medicare will cover some of the care offered by a private midwife with a Medicare provider number, but only for care given during the pregnancy and after the baby is born — not the actual birth.
You will pay a fee for midwifery care under a private obstetrician or for a private midwife. But most private midwives are registered as Medicare providers, so you may get a rebate through Medicare. Otherwise, you may get a rebate from your private health insurer.
Your midwife's role during pregnancy
Midwives will provide most of your antenatal care if you're planning to give birth in a public maternity unit. You might also see a midwife during your appointments with a private obstetrician. For a planned home birth, you'll probably see the same midwife (or a small team) throughout your pregnancy.
Your midwife will usually:
- check your baby's health, growth and position
- advise on or help with hospital bookings and routine tests and checks
- give you support and advice
- help you prepare for labour and birth
Your midwife's role during labour and birth
Midwives will support you through labour and birth. They can:
- give you information, encouragement and emotional support
- monitor your progress and suggest strategies to help your labour
- monitor the baby's heartbeat and other signs
- offer you pain relief, or arrange for a doctor to administer it
- get extra medical help if needed
If you have an uncomplicated birth at a public hospital or birth centre, your midwife will usually assist you with both the labour and the birth of your baby. You may not have the same midwife care for you for the whole labour. An obstetrician can be called in if there are complications.
In a private hospital, your midwife will update your obstetrician on your progress and call them in for the birth.
If you’ve chosen a home birth, your midwife will manage your labour and the birth. They might need to call an ambulance to take you to hospital if complications arise that require medical intervention.
Midwives can't give epidurals. These can only be given in a hospital by an anaesthetist.
After your baby is born
Your midwife will care for both you and your baby immediately after the birth. The midwife, or your doctor, will check whether you have lost too much blood or need stitches.
Midwives offer postnatal care in hospital, including:
- helping you with breastfeeding and settling your baby
- showing you how to bathe your baby and change nappies
- administering pain relief if needed (or organising a doctor to provide it)
- carrying out some routine health tests, such as newborn screening
When you go home, a midwife might visit you at home.
After a home birth, your midwife will usually visit you daily for a few days.
Some midwives will also be available to give advice over the phone for the first few weeks.
Your local child health nurse, many of whom are midwives, can also visit you at home and see you for regular appointments as your child grows.
- Call Pregnancy, Birth and Baby on 1800 882 436 to speak with a maternal child health nurse.
- Learn more about midwifery at the Australian College of Midwives.
- To find a private midwife, visit Midwives Australia.
Sources:
Raising Children Network (Midwife), Raising Children Network (Public hospitals: pregnancy care and birth), Raising Children Network (Homebirth: pregnancy care and birth), Raising Children Network (Birth centres: pregnancy care and birth), BMC Health Services Research (The distribution of maternity services across rural and remote Australia: does it reflect population need?), NSW Health (Becoming a registered midwife), Australian College of Midwives (What is a midwife?), Department of Health (Australia's Future Health Workforce Report – Midwives), The Royal Women's Hospital (Pregnancy care & birthing options)Learn more here about the development and quality assurance of healthdirect content.
Last reviewed: January 2021
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Related pages
- Antenatal care during your pregnancy
- What does a child health nurse do?
- What does an obstetrician do?
- What does your GP do in pregnancy care?
Need more information?
Midwives: guide for women & families | Raising Children Network
Midwife means being ‘with woman’. Midwives care for women during pregnancy, labour and birth. They work in hospitals, birth centres and homebirths.
Read more on raisingchildren.net.au website
Birthing services in Central Australia | NT.GOV.AU
Antenatal care, midwife services, labour and birth, lactation consultant, childbirth education and support for Central Australia.
Read more on NT Health website
Pain relief during labour | Raising Children Network
Pain relief in labour includes natural options like massage, as well as medical options. It’s best to discuss options with a midwife or doctor in pregnancy.
Read more on raisingchildren.net.au website
Pregnancy & antenatal appointments | Raising Children Network
At antenatal appointments, your doctor or midwife keeps track of your health and your baby’s health during pregnancy. You can ask questions and get support.
Read more on raisingchildren.net.au website
Homebirth: pregnancy care and birth | Raising Children Network
Homebirth is an option for healthy women with low-risk pregnancies who can transfer to hospital.
Private midwives care for homebirthing women in pregnancy.
Read more on raisingchildren.net.au website
Health professionals involved in your pregnancy
Information on the health professionals involved in your pregnancy, such as midwives, doctors and obstetricians.
Read more on Pregnancy, Birth & Baby website
Choosing where to give birth
Advice on choosing where to give birth, including a midwifery unit or birth centre, hospital or at home, and what to expect from private and public care.
Read more on Pregnancy, Birth & Baby website
Pregnancy care & birth: public hospitals | Raising Children Network
Public hospitals are safe options for pregnancy care and birth.
Midwives usually look after women having public hospital births. Medicare covers most costs.
Read more on raisingchildren.net.au website
Pregnancy care & birth at birth centres | Raising Children Network
Birth centres support healthy women with low-risk pregnancies to give birth in a home-like environment. Pregnancy care at birth centres is led by midwives.
Read more on raisingchildren.net.au website
Having a baby at a birthing centre
Birthing centres are usually more home-like than hospitals. Birthing centres are run by midwives, and in some centres, water birth is an option.
Read more on Pregnancy, Birth & Baby website
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The role of the midwife in childbirth | Mothers today
A midwife is the most appropriate health worker to assist with a normal birth. This follows from the 1985 Fortaleza statement of the World Health Organization and, above all, follows from common sense. This statement stated that: The training of professional midwives or midwives should be encouraged. La atención during normal pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period should be the responsibility of this profession.
Si the delivery is normal, the midwife should be the only professional to care for the woman in labor.
We are talking about midwives because this profession has traditionally been a women's affair, but more and more men are joining it every day.
Index
- 1 What is the role of the midwife in childbirth
- 2 Trust between the woman and the midwife
- 3 The role of the midwife in childbirth
What is the role of the midwife in childbirth
During labor the midwife should be on alert, next to the woman , and your partner if you wish. The midwife or midwife, also known by this name, should only intervene or contact the gynecologist when necessary.
During childbirth, the midwife takes care of the physical well-being of the mother and fetus. Take care of the strong emotional situation the woman is going through. The philosophy of the midwife focuses on pregnancy and childbirth as natural life events. The role of a midwife is to help without interfering.
Various studies confirm that results are more positive and satisfactory when births are performed by midwives than when it is done by gynecologists, since they tend to intervene unnecessarily more often. Thus, the role of a gynecologist, a gynecologist in normal childbirth, should be limited to the availability of a midwife to provide services if needed.
Trust between woman and midwife
One of the main roles of a birth attendant is to support a woman and her family during labour, during labor and beyond. Developing this work is worth An atmosphere of trust and calmness between the midwife and the mother is very important.
The midwife is in a position to establish this trust and achieve effective communication. For this, it is recommended make a personal greeting and a greeting that will reduce anxiety, fear and stress was experienced by many women. This will help test language barriers.
The midwife will help the woman see her own space in the dilatation room. This will help her to adapt the environment to her individual needs, discuss the birth plan if the woman has one. You should use open-ended and non-targeted questions to find out how you feel, which encourages your freedom of movement and expression. It is about respecting the mother's need not to feel watched or judged.
The role of the midwife in childbirth
The main role of the midwife during childbirth is to provide support, understanding and confidence in the ability of women to cope with this work. It is recommended to assess the woman's knowledge of pain management techniques. One of its tasks is to provide you with information and advice that will enable you to choose the ones that are best for the mother.
Having made a list, we can say that these are their special functions in the hospital:
- He sees a pregnant woman when she comes to the hospital.
- When labor begins, he must accept the mother-to-be and take her to the expansion room. He will take care of you during the expansion period.
- He will also take care of notifying doctors in case of complications or unforeseen events during the dilatation process.
- He is responsible for contacting or advising the anesthesiologist if the mother has requested an epidural. Always at the right time, not before or after.
- Fetal monitoring of the expansion and condition of the child.
- The pregnant woman is transferred to the maternity ward.
Matron takes care of a woman during childbirth and can suture an episiotomy.
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You may be interested in
The role of the midwife in the organization of breastfeeding - GAUZ OZP GKB No. 8
- Post author: Press secretary
- The entry was published on: 03.
12.2019 - Post category: our specialists / News
In the antenatal clinic, in the maternity hospital, pregnant women and women in labor are constantly informed about the benefits of breastfeeding. Particular attention is paid to the importance of early breastfeeding within the first half hour after birth. The maternity hospital together with the antenatal clinic are guided by Order No. 128 of 05/08/2001 "On the protection, promotion and support of breastfeeding in the Chelyabinsk region" , which outlines the 10 principles for successful breastfeeding:
- Have a written breastfeeding policy that is communicated to all health care personnel in due course.
- Train all medical staff in acquiring the skills needed to implement this policy.
- Inform all pregnant women about the benefits and implementation of breastfeeding.
- Help mothers with their first breastfeeding half an hour after birth.
- Show mothers how to breastfeed and how to maintain lactation even if they have to be separated from their babies.
- Give newborns no food or drink other than breastmilk unless otherwise directed by the doctor.
- Practice room sharing, allowing mothers and babies to be together 24 hours a day.
- Encourage breastfeeding on demand whenever the baby is hungry.
- Do not give pacifiers to children who are breastfeeding.
- Encourage the establishment of breastfeeding support groups and refer mothers to them after discharge from the hospital or clinic.
Following these principles, the antenatal clinic conducts seminars for pregnant women on the benefits of breastfeeding. And in the maternity ward, much attention is paid to early contact between mother and child (a newborn child immediately after birth is laid out on the mother's stomach), as well as putting the baby to the breast in the first half hour after birth.
The midwife tells mothers that early attachment to the breast plays a huge role in the immunization of the newborn immediately after birth, is an important moment in stimulating lactation and increasing the duration of natural feeding.
