Essay On The Midwife

Continuous care during childbirth is especially important. Different support roles for the pregnant woman help her to achieve continuous care during the childbirth process. The pregnant woman that is about give birth may have family members, friends, nursing staff, and professional support to help her achieve continuous care during labor and delivery. Each different kind of support the woman receives has different benefits, barriers, and outcomes associated with it. One of the most interesting professional support roles is the midwife. The midwife provides excellent continuous care for the expecting mom during the childbirth process. 
 The midwife brings many benefits regarding continuous care for the expecting mom. One of the benefits is

Another benefit that midwives provide in supporting continuous care for the expecting mom is a holistic approach to care. Midwives typically provide more hands-on support and comfort during intrapartum care than physicians (Hastings, 2015). Midwives are not only concerned with the physical aspects of birthing, but also how the mom is doing emotionally, spiritually, and mentally. No matter the age, the midwife can provide great comprehensive care to a pregnant adolescent to a pregnant woman in menopause (Davidson et al., 2016). 
 A third benefit that midwives present in supporting continuous care for the expecting mom is cost-effectiveness. Other countries, such as the United Kingdom, have cheaper birthing cost because of midwife-led labor and delivery care (Ryan, Revill, Devore, & Normand, 2013). United States is unique in that labor and delivery is physician-driven. Doctors are more expensive to have and to produce than a midwife. Having a midwife perform labor and delivery at the home is about 25% the cost of having a doctor perform labor and delivery at a hospital or clinic (Ryan et al., 2013).
 Although the midwife brings many benefits regarding continuous care for the expecting mom, there are also some barriers that the midwife brings regarding care for the

(2008) found no statistical difference between midwives and physicians regarding newborn death rates. Hartem et al. (2008) study not only found that midwives were more likely to achieve vaginal births than physicians, but also their study found that women rate higher perceptions of maternal and fetal outcomes that support continuous care regarding midwives than physicians. The study concluded that more women rated midwives higher than physicians in giving the mother control, initiating breastfeeding, less episiotomy, less likelihood of forceps or vacuum assisted birth, and less days of the baby staying at the hospital.
 Because of the many benefits and many positive maternal and fetal outcomes the midwife brings, nurses and midwives need to promote midwifery. The nurse and midwives need to see that voicing the importance of midwifery is an important essential step in bringing about change for more autonomy regarding the role of the nurse and midwife (Bonar, 2015). Nurses and midwives need to be present in the communities and local settings to voice concern and promote the importance of midwifery. Nurses and midwives need to be politically active and aware of what is going on regarding the field of labor and delivery and