Reactions have been caused among the Associations of Scientific Midwives (SEM) by the (pending approval) duties list of the Ministry of Health, which excludes midwives from conducting normal (vaginal) births.
According to the new Joint Ministerial Decision (JMD), the autonomous conduct of a normal (vaginal) birth by midwives in Primary Health Care (e.g. health centres) is prohibited, while in Secondary and Tertiary care (e.g. hospitals) childbirth is provided for to be carried out exclusively under medical supervision.
“On the basis of Presidential Decree 351/1989 (Government Gazette 159) and EU Directive 2005/36/EC, midwives are legally established professionals for the monitoring and performance of normal (vaginal) childbirth. […] It is ascertained that in the pending-approval duties list of midwives these above competences for which they have been trained and provided for by the relevant legislation have been removed,” a topical parliamentary question by the KKE to the Minister of Health states.
According to assessments, the Ministry of Health has examined the reactions and is leaning toward amending the JMD.
As the professional bodies point out, at a time when Greece is facing a demographic problem and records low rates of normal (vaginal) births, the WHO explicitly recommends making use of the midwife as a key health professional to improve maternal and neonatal health indicators.
In a country where “we have 60% caesareans, it is as if we all accept that there are no healthy women. That they all need a doctor or an operation to give birth. It is impossible for there to be childbirth without a midwife,” Mirella Manesi, a midwife and member of the Board of the Union of Independent Midwives, told MEGA.
“The women who give birth are not only in Athens, where in a few minutes they will be in a secondary [facility], in a secondary structure. We are talking about the women of the regions, on the remote islands,” she stressed.
Sources: Kathimerini, MEGA, KKE, Proto Thema
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