A common misconception about midwives is that their main duty is to attend births, but there is so much more to the role that they play in women’s health. In many communities, midwives are often the only health providers delivering family planning counseling and services. Qualified midwives are trained to deliver voluntary family planning services while offering informed choices for clients, especially young individuals.
Midwives should be much more involved as they are equipped with unique skillsets, starting from the antenatal to postnatal care, which includes family planning, spotting sexually transmitted diseases, providing reproductive health services, while also making sure that they are supporting and upholding women’s rights at the same time.
In order to elevate role of midwives in family planning, the Integrated Midwives Association of the Philippines (IMAP) recently spearheaded a training and upskilling of midwives to build up their technical skills and teach them how to embrace their role as women’s health counsellors and educators. IMAP teamed up with PRSP, women’s health company Organon (Philippines) Incorporated, and other medical professionals to make the said activity possible.
Through this multi-stakeholder initiative, midwives from Region 6 attended a 3-day training and lecture on the insertion of Implanon NXT, a Progestin Sub-dermal Implant (PSI), a form of modern family planning method. Speakers of this capacity-building activity include Philippine Society for Responsible Parenthood (PSRP) President Dr. Bernabe Marinduque, IMAP’s Patricia Gomez and Dr. Eileen Tancinco, an Ob-gynecologist.
In his lecture, Dr. Bernabe explained “Family Planning is essential to prevent prenatal deaths, maternal mortality, maternal morbidity and newborn death. For any form of contraception, nothing is really 100% effective, and a common misconception about implants is that women might have troubles conceiving after taking it out, but I can assure you that with implants like Implanon NXT, return to fertility is quick.”
Apart from the training on PSI insertion, the lecture also emphasized how good counseling is an essential part of family planning services, and that healthcare providers, including midwives, are responsible for ensuring that a woman makes a voluntary and informed choice.
An effective counseling session dispels clients’ fears and allows misconceptions to be corrected and clarified. Necessary information in counseling includes method effectiveness, advantages and disadvantages, side effects and complications, use of chosen method, and when client needs to return.
One of the few healthcare companies truly dedicated to women’s health, Organon is developing solutions across three core areas. One of those core areas is Women’s Health, a portfolio of solutions to support women’s well-being, with a leading contraceptives business.
“Over the years, we’ve seen how collaboration in healthcare has been shown to improve patient outcomes. That is why Organon engages in multi-stakeholder efforts to achieve a common goal of empowering women to make informed decisions about her health, body and future,” said Organon’s Market Access, Policy & Communications Lead Caroline Lopez.
