Reflective journal Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Reflective journal - Assignment Example Before her, many women lost their lives while bring new lives in to the world. Nurses had to go through a basic nursing training before specializing in midwifery as a post-basic course, a process that was quite lengthy. The contributions of Gaskin towards safe motherhood initiatives sensitized Americans about the rising rates of maternal death. In my view, the project was a great success as there was a sharp decline in mortality rates. Teenage pregnancy rate in America is among the highest in the industrialized world. I however, find her initiatives narrow and one-sided because the focus is on safe delivery and not on safe sex behavior. Ina Gaskin’s contributions have transformed midwifery into a specialized field of nursing. We now have more midwives and midwifery training schools. The focus of midwifery is now on prenatal, peri-natal and postnatal health of the mother and child. More women are now seeking specialized midwifery services. Nurses can now manage shoulder dystocia competently giving them a greater role. Ian May Gaskin transformed midwifery into a specialized distinct field by starting the direct midwifery training. This taught me that nursing could specialize more as a profession to give the nurses a greater role in health care. Gaskin’s development of Gaskin’s maneuver made me realize that nurses can play a greater role in managing difficult labor because the nurses were viewed to be competent in managing normal labor alone. With a good foundation laid by Gaskin, I intend to broaden the focus of midwifery to deal with difficult labor. This will be achieved by introduction of training modules and workshops for pre-service and in-service midwives on the management of difficult labor. This will ensure that as the numbers of midwives rise, their competency in managing labor is also