Explain Maternal care - Medical Healthcare Insurance

Maternal care is the utmost care required when one individual or a person in family is pregnant and need maternal care . Most policies in Healthcare have limited coverage about maternity . But there are policies in Medical Healthcare Insurance who cover Maternity and this way covers Maternal care .

But the definition of maternal care is not limited . Maternal care includes lots of variable sections which are described below . So before taking any Healthcare Insurance plan one most know different aspects of Maternity care and same way Newborn Health also .

Maternal and newborn health practitioners

A maternal and newborn health practitioner is a health worker who deals with the care of women and their children before, during and after pregnancy and childbirth. These include obstetricians, obstetrical nurses, midwives (including nurse midwives), nurse practitioners, and others. One of the main differences across these professions is the training and authority to provide surgical services and other life-saving interventions. In some developing countries, traditional birth attendants, or traditional midwives, are the primary source of pregnancy and childbirth care for many women and families, although they are not certified or licensed.

Obstetrics

Obstetrics (from the Latin obstare, "to stand by") is the medical specialty dealing with the care of all women's reproductive tracts and their children during pregnancy (prenatal period), childbirth and the postnatal period. Many obstetricians are also gynecologists, meaning they perform in both specialties. In the United States, these physicians are commonly referred to as OB/GYNs.

Prenatal care

Prenatal care (also known as antenatal care) refers to the regular medical and nursing care recommended for women during pregnancy. Prenatal care is a type of preventative care with the goal of providing regular check-ups that allow doctors or midwives to treat and prevent  health problems throughout the  pregnancy while promoting healthy lifestyles that benefit both mother and child.During check-ups, women will receive medical information over maternal physiological changes in pregnancy, biological changes, and prenatal nutrition including prenatal vitamins. Recommendations on management and healthy lifestyle changes are also made during regular check-ups. The availability of routine prenatal care has played a part in reducing maternal death rates and miscarriages as well as birth defects, low birth weight, and other preventable health problems.

Prenatal care generally consists of:

monthly visits during the first two trimesters (from week 1–28)
fortnightly from 28 to week 36 of pregnancy
weekly after week 36 (delivery at week 38–40)
Assessment of parental needs and family dynamic

Postnatal care

Postnatal (Latin for after birth, from post, meaning after, and natalis, meaning of birth) is the period beginning immediately after the birth of a child and extending for about six weeks. Another term would be postpartum period, as it refers to the mother (whereas postnatal refers to the infant).
It is the time after birth, a time in which the mother's body, including hormone levels and uterus size, returns to a non-pregnant state. Lochia is post-partum vaginal discharge, containing blood, mucus, and placental tissue.




Birth attendant

A birth attendant, also known as "skilled birth attendant" , is a midwife, physician, obstetrician, nurse, or other health care professional who provides basic and emergency health care services to women and their newborns during pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. Birth attendants are trained to be present at  childbirth, whether the delivery takes place in a health care institution or at home, to recognize and respond appropriately to medical complications, and to implement interventions to help prevent them in the first place including through prenatal care.

Obstetrical nursing

Obstetrical nursing, also called perinatal nursing, is a nursing specialty that works with patients who are attempting to become pregnant, are currently pregnant, or are recently delivered. Obstetrical nurses help provide prenatal care and testing, care of patients experiencing pregnancy complications, care during labor and delivery, and care of patients following delivery. Obstetrical nurses work closely with obstetricians, midwives, and nurse practitioners. They also provide supervision of patient care technicians and surgical technologists
Obstetrical nurses perform postoperative care on a surgical unit, stress test evaluations, cardiac monitoring, vascular monitoring, and health assessments. Obstetrical nurses must possess specialized skills including electronic fetal monitoring, nonstress tests, and medication administration by continuous intravenous drip.
Obstetrical nurses work in many different environments, including, medical offices, prenatal clinics, labor & delivery units, antepartum units, postpartum units, operating theatres, and clinical research.

Midewife

Midwifery is a health care profession in which providers offer care to childbearing women during pregnancy, labour and birth, and during the postpartum period. They also help care for the newborn and assist the mother with breastfeeding.
A practitioner of midwifery is known as a midwife, a term used in reference to both women and men, although the majority of midwives are female. In addition to providing care to women during pregnancy and birth, many midwives also provide primary care to women, well-woman care related to reproductive health, annual gynecological exams, family planning, and menopausal care.

Midwives are specialists in low-risk pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum, although they are trained to recognize and deal with deviations from the norm as well as certain high risk situations. Obstetricians, in contrast, are specialists in illness related to childbearing and in surgery. The two professions can be complementary, but may be at odds in some countries, where obstetricians are taught to "actively manage" labor, while midwives are taught not to intervene unless necessary. Most midwives are familiar with the process of physiological management and the use of gravity in aiding the process of labor.
Midwives refer women to general practitioners or obstetricians when a pregnant woman requires care beyond the midwives' area of expertise. In many parts of the world, these professions work together to provide care to childbearing women. In others, only the midwife is available to provide care. Midwives are trained to handle certain more difficult deliveries, including breech births, twin births and births where the baby is in a posterior position, using non-invasive techniques.
For low risk births, compared with obstetricians, midwives offer lower maternity care cost, lower intervention rates, reduced mortality and morbidity as a result of fewer interventions, and fewer recovery complications.

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