Women's education and profession midwifery in Nordic countries

Abstract

Introduction: Help at birth is one of the historically oldest volunteers supports that a woman has offered to another woman. One of the reasons for high maternal and infant mortality was identified as a lack of basic medical knowledge among the woman who helped during birth and this required immediate action to secure the survival of nations. When the Church and government made demands for education and professional license, the voluntary help at birth transformed into an educated and paid profession for women. The study aimed to describe the evolution of women’s education and the midwifery profession in Nordic countries from the 1600s until today.
 Methods: Historical and contemporary documents, research and grey literature, are drawn together to provide a historical description of the midwifery professional development and education in Nordic countries.
 Results: In the Nordic countries, governments from the 1600s had significant problems with high maternal and infant mortality. Most vulnerable were unmarried women and their children. To change the trend, northern countries had been inspired by France, Holland, England, and Germany, which had introduced education and a professional license for midwives. The targeted and systematic investment in midwifery education, followed by industrialization and welfare development in Nordic countries, has resulted in one of the highest survival rates for mothers and infants in the world today. In parallel with this, it has created the first female paid profession in history. Today, midwifery education is at the university level in all Nordic countries, and the certified midwife is responsible for pre- and post-natal care and normal birth. In Sweden, Norway, and Iceland, the midwife’s responsibility also includes contraception counseling and prescription of drugs for birth control purposes.
 Conclusions: The education and professional licenses have contributed to a progressively improved care of birth women and infants. The professional and licensed midwife is positioned in society as an essential player in the current development of pre- and post-natal care. Furthermore, the graduated and licensed midwife positioned herself as the first paid professional female profession in modern history.

Clustering clinical learning environment and mentoring perceptions of nursing and midwifery students: A cross‐sectional study

“…For instance, in Australia, Canada and United Kindom, the education programs have direct entry, which means that training of midwives does not require to complete nursing education (Zhou and Lu, 2018). However, in Nordic countries, including Scandinavia and Baltic countries, midwife education includes additional parts of the nursing degree program (Pajalić et al, 2019). The International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) has developed a minimum education standard for teaching programs.…”

Perinatal support for couples during COVID‐19: A descriptive qualitative study

“…Patient or public contribution: Patients/members of the public contributed to the data collected and were involved in member checking to ensure the rigour of the study. Kingdom, such continuity of care post-childbirth and post-hospital discharge is very common (Aune et al, 2021;Pajalic et al, 2019).…”

Midwives’ descriptions of strategies and requirements when following up pregnant women at risk of developing perinatal depression - a qualitative study

“…In Norway, midwifery training is a 2-year specialization at the master's level (120 ECTS credits) (15) after a bachelor's degree in nursing and at least 1 year of work experience as a nurse. Non-complicated antenatal care, childbirth, and postnatal care, including reproductive health, are the responsibility of authorized midwives or general practitioners (GPs) (15).…”

“…In Norway, midwifery training is a 2-year specialization at the master's level (120 ECTS credits) (15) after a bachelor's degree in nursing and at least 1 year of work experience as a nurse. Non-complicated antenatal care, childbirth, and postnatal care, including reproductive health, are the responsibility of authorized midwives or general practitioners (GPs) (15). Antenatal care is part of the health and care service in all municipalities, and health personnel who carry out pregnancy controls must follow the national professional guidelines (15)(16)(17).…”

“…Non-complicated antenatal care, childbirth, and postnatal care, including reproductive health, are the responsibility of authorized midwives or general practitioners (GPs) (15). Antenatal care is part of the health and care service in all municipalities, and health personnel who carry out pregnancy controls must follow the national professional guidelines (15)(16)(17). It is recommended that pregnant women be offered a basic program of nine consultations, including fetal diagnostics.…”