2023-08-29 17:37:00
In Mexico, the development of midwifery has a long history, beginning with the ancestral practice of traditional midwives in almost the entire country. Despite this, neither traditional nor professional midwives have obtained due recognition or a clearly defined space for action within the health system when carrying out deliveries.
Currently, 96% of deliveries in Mexico are attended in second level hospitals. This has caused the saturation of the services, which do not always have sufficient personnel or material and financial resources to provide quality maternal care.
During births, cases of obstetric violence occur
The excessive demand for services has led to situations of mistreatment of women and their newborn, even leading to cases of obstetric violence. Likewise, the pressure has also led to the routine use of non-evidence based practices and the excessive medicalization of deliveries.
For example, Mexico ranks fourth worldwide and second in Latin America in terms of caesarean section rates, with an increase of almost 50% in the last 15 years.
Already in 2016 (in the month of June) a new version of the Official Mexican Standard 007 was approved, for the care of women during pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperium and the care of the newborn person. In it, specific reference is made to midwives as qualified providers for low-risk obstetric delivery care.
Progress needs to be completed with a national midwifery model
This norm, together with the approval (in 2011) of labor codes for the hiring of technical midwives, represents a January achievement towards the recognition of midwifery. Likewise, in 2014 the “Clinical practice guide: Surveillance and management of labor in low-risk pregnancies” was approved.
Although it is necessary to complement these advances with a national midwifery model, as well as operational guidelines to install it. This is because the absence of a specific regulatory framework for federal application has left the development and implementation of a model integrated by midwives in the hands of isolated initiatives, which often face resistance and are susceptible to changes in policy. government, leadership or personal priorities.
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