Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Training Village Midwives for Family Planning Services Delivery in Rural Turkey

1977; Wiley; Volume: 8; Issue: 12 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/1965912

1728-4465

Robert L. Bertera, Nuran Ustonglu,

Child and Adolescent Health

Government midwives in Turkey are responsible for delivering babies prenatal and postnatal care family planning care of children to 6 years of age immunizations and maintaining health records including vital statistics for approximately 3200 people. Although the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare considered family planning an integral preventive health measure it was found that the midwives neglected this aspect of their work because they were overwhelmed by their other responsibilities. A training program was developed therefore to allow midwives to identify high-risk couples and to plan their home visits according to family planning priorities. Training materials and field materials were designed to aid in this task. The highest priority for family planning services was assigned to couples at high risk of pregnancy (with a child under 4 years old or expected) who also were at high risk of pregnancy-related complications (when the mother had 5 or more live births). The 2nd priority was assigned to mothers at risk of pregnancy without added risk of complications and the 3rd priority was given to couples at low risk of pregnancy and its complications. After a 1-week training course 10 midwives in the province of Eskisehir were evaluated over a 6-month period. It was found that the midwives correctly assigned priorities visited high-priority couples more often and improved the use of contraception among their patients. This training program conducted in 1976 will be expanded to almost 300 midwives in Turkey.