Midwifery is one of the oldest professions in the world. Midwifes are members of
the profession who is obliged to provide the necessary care for the mother and the newborn
before, during and after the birth. For this reason, it has a key role in reaching the ideal of
a healthy society and healthy generations. Midwifes in Turkey, began to receive formal
education in 1842. Because in this period the Ottoman bureaucracy and physicians began
to hold traditional/local midwifes responsible for maternal and infant deaths. The problem
could be solved if the traditional midwifes would be trained through training course.
However, when the expected success in their training was not achieved, it was considered
appropriate to give diplomas to the existing ones and to supervise them. Dr. Besim Ömer
Paşa who plaid an important role in the transformation of the midwifery profession, opened
the first birthplace of the country (viladethane) in 1892. In 1909, a Midwife Academy was
established in Kadırga. According to the conditions determined by Dr. Besim Ömer, only the
women younger than 30 years of age and graduated from the primary school could apply
to this academy. The traditional/local midwifes that were not able to provide the above
mentioned conditions were completely pushed out of the system. The midwifery profession
has gradually lost its identity as an independent profession and has started to enter under the
control of male physicians. During the Republican era, many attempts were made to increase
the number of qualified midwives and fifty persons Midwifery Students Dormitory were
established, besides the school in Istanbul. Short course programs for midwives were also
organized at Numune Hospitals of the country. However, even though 13 years have passed
since the proclamation of the Republic, the targeted increase in the number of midwives
could not be achieved. Considering that about eighty percent of the country’s population
lived in the villages, in 1936 it was decided to open village midwives schools. As a result,
village midwives that will be employed in the villages started to get trained. However at
the end of the fifteenth year of the Republic, the desired goal of improving the quality of
midwifery training and increasing the number of midwives could not be achieved. Moreover,
as in the Ottoman Empire period, during the first fifteen years of the Republic, the male
dominant medical concept leave its mark and therefore, the midwifery profession could not
be developed as an autonomous profession.
Birincil Dil | Türkçe |
---|---|
Bölüm | Araştırma Makaleleri |
Yazarlar | |
Yayımlanma Tarihi | 30 Mart 2018 |
Gönderilme Tarihi | 12 Ekim 2017 |
Yayımlandığı Sayı | Yıl 2017 Cilt: 17 Sayı: 35 |