Tenth International Conference on Health, Wellness & Society

Abstract

The poorest 20% of the population in most countries continues to lag behind desired goals, and renewed actions are needed to improve equity–a wake-up call for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In Buenos Aires, women’s health care needs fall within midwifery practitioners’ scope of expertise as long as these human resources are qualified and properly regulated. Our objective is to define the effectiveness of qualified midwifery intervention through basic women’s health services within the complexity of the Primary Health Care (PHC) system. A quasi-experimental ‘before-after’ study was carried out to compare women’s care provided by midwifery personnel with basic versus additional skills in PHC settings. The study was carried out in 2017 in two periods: a pre-intervention (Pre-I) period from January 1 to June 30, and a post-intervention (Post-I) period from July 1 to December 31. The average number of visits per period for Papanicolaou (Pap) tests, breast exams, pelvic examination, and family planning was 5.66 (5.22-6.09), 1.83 (1.73-1.92),48.33 (47.89-48.70) and 94.66 (91.65-97.66), respectively, for the Pre-I period; and 23.66 (21.94-25.25), 76.5 (75.87-76.92), 84.00 (83.47-84.52) and 88.83 (87.51-90.08), respectively, for the Post-I period. The differences in means between Pre-I and Post-I periods for these variables were -18 (-15.17:-20.82), -74.67 (-71.92:-77.41), -35.67 (-35.04:-36.3), and 5.83 (3.49:8.16), respectively. Qualified personnel, together with active appointment scheduling and a greater frequency and length of midwifery care interventions, has yielded significant results in primary prevention activities,which results in health care systems to be more inclusive of women from vulnerable groups