Saturday, January 24, 2009

Midwives in the military offer extra level of care

Late last fall, as Mindy Adorador was just beginning to show during her first pregnancy, she told a midwife at U.S. Naval Hospital Yokosuka about the slight whispers in her belly. ...

The military has more than 70 midwives, according to military health officials. These registered nurses do much of the same work as gynecologists and obstetricians — providing prenatal care, performing women’s wellness exams, administering birth control and delivering some of the thousands of babies born in military facilities each year.

More than 23,000 babies are born annually in Army facilities, spokeswoman Margaret Tippy said. The Air Force handles 8,000 births each year, according to one official.

But where doctors more often diagnose and treat medical complications, midwives help their patients navigate through the routines of life — including pregnancy. ...

Are they taking care of pregnant soldiers? It seems so.
Military midwives are warriors as well. They deploy downrange as nursing unit supervisors or health care providers, where servicemembers need Pap smears and even, sometimes, pre-natal care.

via Midwives in the military offer extra level of care | Stars and Stripes.

Accidents happen. Excuse my ignorance, but ... wouldn't that get you some kind of discharge from the military if you were a woman who got pregnant?

1 comment:

Melissa said...

Military midwives attend the births of military dependents, too. My dad was in the navy and a certified-nurse midwife in the military delivered my brother in a hospital in Georgia.