Aim. To evaluate whether midwives from the West-Pomeranian province work as independent professionals under the Polish legislations regulating their profession. Material and methods. Qualitative research (questionnaire) was used to gain an understanding of the independence of the midwifery profession in Poland. Midwives from hospitals and universities in the West-Pomeranian province, Poland, were studied. We surveyed 115 midwives from October 12, 2009 to June 30, 2010. Results. Despite different job seniorities, the majority of surveyed midwives (73%) considered their profession as independent in the eyes of the law. When asked about the serious obstacles for independent midwifery practice, 49.6% of midwives stated a lack of knowledge about independent midwife competencies by other medical professionals, while 47% of midwives reported the lack of consistent legal regulations as a major hurdle. Other reasons included insuffi cient supply of medical equipment (41.7%), no legal authorization to write medical prescriptions (40.8%), and a lack of partnership and cooperation with other medical professionals (40.8%). Conclusions. Currently there are several obstacles to overcome in order for midwifery to become a fully independent practice in Poland, including a lack of consistent regulations and knowledge about midwife competencies. Educational programs for other healthcare professionals, focused on midwife competencies, would benefi t the midwifery profession. Similarly, informative training on midwifery competencies should be introduced as part of undergraduate and postgraduate education for healthcare professionals. In-depth analysis of currently enforced legislation relating to the midwifery profession should be performed and altered to make it more consistent.
Introduction: According to the Nurses and Midwives Act and other legal Acts, a midwife is a person having appropriate competence for independent care of a woman during physiological pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period, and a newborn. These entitlements do not only apply to practice in a hospital or clinic, but also to home conditions, including physiological delivery in locations other than a hospital.The aim of the study is to know the opinion of midwives on planned births in non-hospital locations.Materials and methods: 233 midwives from all over Poland were surveyed. The survey was conducted between May and August 2014. The diagnostic survey method was applied using the author’s questionnaire. Statistica 10 and MS Office programs were used for statistical analysis.Results: 22.1% of the surveyed midwives expressed a willingness to attend a home birth. 67.1% of respondents would not attend a home birth. The decision to attend a birth in non-clinical setting was significantly dependent on the safety of such a birth (p = 0.0000).Conclusions: There was a statistically significant relationship between the opinion of the respondents on the safety of out-of-hospital birth setting and possible handling of such labors.
Objective. The aim of the study was to assess the effectiveness of an antibiotic prophylaxis in order to reduce perinatal percentage of early-symptomatic infections in newborn infants. Materials and method. Material for the study was obtained from the medical records of 1,328 live born individual infants and their mothers. Tested continuous parameters were described with the appropriate numbers, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, median and minimum and maximum values. For analysis of fractions the Chi square was used; also with Yates correction (for a small number of cells). Level of statistical significance -p<0.05. Results. The duration of pregnancy in mothers who gave birth to newborns without evidence of GBS infection was significantly longer than the duration of pregnancy in mothers whose infants were infected with Group B streptococcus (GBS) (39.2 vs 38.3 weeks gestation). In 13 infants infected during delivery, antibiotic prophylaxis was not used (92.86%), while it was used in only one case (7.14%). Perinatal prophylaxis was used in 26.81% of the surveyed mothers. Conclusions. The use of maternal antibiotic prophylaxis can have an impact on lowering the percentage of GBS infections in newborn infants. A trend of reducing the proportion of earlysymptomatic infections has been observedin recent years. The type of delivery does not seem to have a decisive influence on the incidence of GBS-based infection. The colour of the amniotic fluid does not determine the presence of the GBS infection.
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