Obstetrician - Who Is He And What Heals? Appointment

2024 Author: Josephine Shorter | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 21:43

Obstetrician

An obstetrician is a doctor who provides medical care to women during pregnancy, newborns, and the postpartum period.

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Content:

• Obstetrics - what is this discipline?
• What does an obstetrician do?
• Making an appointment with an obstetrician

Obstetrics - what is this discipline?

Obstetrics is a clinical discipline that deals with the study of physiological and pathological processes that affect a woman's body from the moment of conception, during pregnancy, during childbirth and in the period after them. In addition, this branch of science specializes in the development of modern methods of obstetrics, prevention and treatment of complications arising during pregnancy and childbirth.

In previous years, the obstetrician's responsibilities included taking care of newborn babies. However, these procedures gradually separated and became an independent branch of medicine called neonatology.

Don't pair obstetrics with surgery or therapy. It is a separate science that requires deep knowledge that has roots in these two disciplines, but grows in its own branches. Also, as you should not confuse a specialist obstetrician-gynecologist and just an obstetrician.

Knowledge of the basics of anatomy, physiology, gynecology, sexology, surgery, genetics - all of them are necessary in the work of an obstetrician. In addition, women during childbirth are in dire need of moral support. Therefore, human psychology is also not alien to the obstetrician.

What does an obstetrician do?

It is worth distinguishing between two specialties: obstetrician and obstetrician-gynecologist. An obstetrician is a medical professional with a secondary education. To be able to work in a specialty, it is enough to have a college diploma. As for the obstetrician-gynecologist, this doctor must have a higher medical education.

Despite the fact that it is enough to finish obstetrics in college to work in a maternity hospital, the profession of an obstetrician is important, because thanks to it, every person is born. The responsibilities of this specialist include the physical and psychological preparation of a pregnant woman for childbirth. In addition, the obstetrician accepts the child if necessary (when the doctor is busy with other necessary procedures for delivery).

The immediate responsibilities of an obstetrician are reduced to the following points:

• Examination of women in childbirth and pregnant women. An obstetrician must be able to measure pressure, body temperature, and determine body weight. Assessment of swelling and tone of the uterus, measuring the abdomen around the circumference, determining the height of the uterine fundus, performing palpation - all these are the responsibilities of the obstetrician. This specialist must also listen to the fetal heartbeat and be able to distinguish the norm from the pathology.
• If there is a doctor's appointment regarding the performance of doppleography, then the obstetrician should be able to conduct it.
• Taking analyzes. Most often, the obstetrician takes a smear for pathogenic flora.
• Providing psychological support to a woman, performing an examination of a woman in labor as part of prenatal preparation.
• Monitoring the condition of a woman in labor, monitoring the passage of the fetus at the time of contractions, determining and assessing their frequency and strength.
• Taking the fetus when the doctor himself cannot do it.
• Measurement of the height and weight of the child born, his initial examination.
• Attaching a clothespin to the umbilical cord, processing it.
• At the postpartum stage, the obstetrician must assess the integrity of the placenta.

An obstetrician must be a stress-resistant person, because the process of childbirth is very complicated, during which many unforeseen situations can arise. The health of the mother and child largely depends on the prompt and competent help of the obstetrician.

In addition, physical strength and firmness of the hands are two more essential qualities of an obstetrician. He must accept and hold the newborn, not drop him or cause other damage.

As for the demand for the profession, it is at a high level. Maternity hospitals and clinics require both new staff and experienced obstetricians.

To understand that there is a difference between an obstetrician-gynecologist and an obstetrician, it is worth knowing what are the main duties of a doctor with a specialization in obstetrician-gynecologist:

• Caesarean section;
• Performing other surgical procedures;
• Rotation of the fetus, the application of forceps, vacuum, extrusion of the fetus and other procedures during the delivery process that require appropriate qualifications;
• Suturing when tears occur;
• Introduction and prescription of medicines;
• Pressing the uterus;
• Conducting pathological childbirth.