The roles of midwives in women's health

32^nd International Conference on Nursing & Healthcare

February 20, 2023 | Webinar

Hajara Bashari

NAF Ministry of Defence, Nigeria

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Nurs Care

Abstract :

Women are half the population and they know how to take care of themselves, if they are only given access to health care’ Cynthia Nixon Generally, women health and midwifery go hand in hand to enable women receive high quality care. Midwives that are competent are needed in the societies or communities to ensure such quality care to women. A midwife is a health professional trained to support and care for women all round especially during pregnancy, labour, birth and post pregnancy. This also include family planning or child spacing, provide support, advise on food, education on nutrition, exercise, care of the body as well as the infant/baby. Women are also unique beings and their life is in stages. The major transition in a woman is menstruation, pregnancy, motherhood and menopause. However, the challenges faced by women involve the midwives to assist in addressing such negative problems. These negative issues and experiences include infertility, prenatal loss, poverty, violence and unemployment have impact on women`s mental health and wellbeing. The role of midwives in a woman`s health cannot be over emphasized because female health care providers can play important roles in educating the society as well as enable recognition of the health and nutritional needs of the women. Other challenges faced by women include sexism, reproductive health, gender base violence, gender equality, women autonomy as well as discrimination against women in all nationalities. The midwives also face challenges especially in some countries. This is because they have to deal regularly with maternal death without any support, psychologically or professionally as they are forced to work in a nonconducive environment. The roles of midwives include perform routine women`s health checkups, educate women generally especially in prenatal health, nutrition, provide birth education, assist women with breastfeeding and infant care. Menstruation and menopause are also included in educating the women to enable them have quality and healthy life.

Biography :

Wing Commander Hajara Bashari MSS, FSS pjsc Rtd is (RN/RM, FP Provider, Counselor, ADPA, ADLS), former Director Nursing Services Medical Services Branch, Nigerian Air Force Headquarters Abuja Nigeria, former GSO NAF DHML (MOD). She has held so many appointments apart from being a Director such as Matron of few Medical centres as well as Commanding officer nursing of various hospitals in the Nigeria Air Force. She has presented research papers both in Nigeria as well as internationally and has also made few publications.