Essay for maternal health Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

For maternal health - Essay Example She is 12 weeks pregnant. Time has come for Ruth to attend an antenatal check up. She needs to decide on whether she needs care by midwife or care by obstetrician. Midwives usually deliver at home and obstetricians deliver in the hospital. Though hospital settings have more infrastructure and expertise to take care of complications occurring during and after delivery, since most of the deliveries are uncomplicated, home delivery is sufficient for uncomplicated pregnancies under the supervision of midwives or any other trained health personnel like general practitioner. Review of literature indicates that most of the studies on the safety of delivery by midwife are on low-risk and uncomplicated pregnancies. Low-risk pregnancy means pregnancy which is less likely to have medical complications. This is determined by the fact that there are no obvious medical problems during pregnancy, the woman has started her prenatal care before19 weeks of gestation, has had 4 visits of antenatal care through the 28th week, e very 2 weeks for the next 8 weeks and then weekly for the last 4 weeks (Macfarlane, McCandlish, & Campbell, 2000). It is obvious that high-risk pregnancies need to be delivered in the hospitals under expertise supervision and monitoring. According to Davies, Hey, Reid and Young et al (1996), general practitioners are apprehensive about inability to handle complications arising during homebirth. Also, some studies like Bastian, Keirse & Lancaster (1998) have revealed that home births carry high death rate due to "underestimation of the risks associated with post-term birth, twin pregnancy and breech presentation, and a lack of response to fetal distress" (Bastian, Keirse & Lancaster, 1998). Certain emergencies like cord prolapse, inverted uterus, or bleeding of the mother and breathing problems with the infant, may need immediate intervention which can be instituted only when the patient is in the hospital. Since Ruths is a