Providing specialized midwifery telemedicine services during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Background. The COVID-19 crisis encouraged policymakers, regulators and payers to use remote health care. Objectives. This study was conducted to investigate the awareness and practice of midwifery as a remote service during the COVID-19 pandemic. Material and methods. This is a descriptive research in which the views and practices of 600 midwives from all over Iran were assessed using a web-based questionnaire as a data collection tool. A hyperlink to the questionnaire was shared in social media groups dedicated to midwife members. Results. 62.7% of the midwives participating in the study considered telemedicine to be applicable in health services. However, most of them still provided specialised services in person during the COVID-19 pandemic, and provision of remote services was limited to telephone counselling. The awareness and practice of midwives in this field were not appropriate. A significant relationship of midwives' awareness and practice with their age, previous work and education was observed (p < 0.01). Conclusions. As far as provision of specialised midwifery services through telemedicine is concerned, the awareness and practice of midwives are limited to the provision of telephone counselling, thus it is necessary to provide technological and educational infrastructure to set the stage for providing comprehensive midwifery services through telemedicine.