ROMANIA

State of Midwifery in Romaniain 2016

Association(s) Member(s)

Name / e-mail contact / Web Site
Independent Midwives Association /
/ asociatiamoaselorindependente.ro

Regulation

Yes/no / Name(s) (Ministry of Health, Professional body)
Web site
Regulatory Body / Yes / The Order of Nurses, Midwives and Medical Assistants
Ministry of Health
Unions (some examples)
Any Other information
Yes /No / Comments
Registration / Yes
Recertification/relicensing / Yes

General Comments: Any planned or potential changes in the future

General data (fill as much as you can)

Comments
Number of midwives / Conflicting data / The Order gave dates about thousands, but there are midwives and ob-gyn-nurses together
Number of private practice midwives / No dates available
Number of midwives in public institutions / Conflicting data / Statistical National Institute 2014: about 591 midwives are working in the state units
Number of midwives in private hospitals / No dates available
Number of live birth per year (last data available/what year) / 185 322 (2015)
Any other data
Any other data

General comments: Any planned or potential changes in the future

Midwives’ scope of practice

YES/ NO / Level of autonomy if non-complicated(normal)pregnancy/birth/postnatal/Gynecological follow-up
Possible answers :No/yes/doctor’s prescription/doctor present / Comments
Gynecological follow-up / no
Pre-conceptual care / no
Pregnancy/prenatal care / no / Only in maternities under the doctor prescription
Intrapartum care / yes / doctor prescription / In some rural maternities the presence of the doctor depends from case to case: when everything it’s normal only the midwife gives care, when there are some suspicions the midwife consult the doctor
Birth/Delivery / Yes
No / In the rural maternities with/without a doctor present
In the university centers / In some rural maternities all births are attended only by midwives;when there are some suspicions the midwife ask for the presence of the doctor
Newborn resuscitation / no
Post natal care maternal / yes / No / Only in maternities under the doctor prescription
Post natal care newborn / no
Family Planning / no
Medicines/Drugs prescription / no
Tests/screening prescription / no
Other
Other

General comments: Any planned or potential changes in the future

Environment

Yes / No / Comments
Home birth / No
Alongside midwifery led units/birth centres (BC)/ birth houses (BH) / No
Stand Alone midwifery led Unit/BC/BH / No
Hospital Units / Yes
Midwifery led units part of the Hospital Maternity / No

General Comments: Any planned or potential changes in the future

Education

Yes/no number of years / Comments
Direct entry / Yes / With admission requirement
The candidates must have baccalaureate diploma (after 12 classes)
Post-Nursing Qualification course
University Graduate, Diploma and level / The University of Medicine and Pharmacy/ The Faculty of Midwives and Nursing
Bachelor’s Degree in Midwifery
Title: Licensed midwife
Masters,
Ph D / Yes from 1 to 2 years
Not in midwifery
Yes in others specialties connected with healthy Midwives have free access to the PhD in Medical Science conducted by the universities of medicine and pharmacy and it takes 4 years / Obviously it's very difficult for a midwife to obtain a place sustained financial by the state (the doctors are privileged) and it's also difficult to obtain a place at fee for the same reason (plus it's very expensive). At this moment(2016) we have only two PhD midwives students: one is sustained by state and the other one pays a huge fee.
Active Midwifery Research / no

General Comments: Any planned or potential changes in the future

In Romania we have an incomplete legislation for midwives. We have only a small article in a common law for nurses and midwives: article 7 from Emergency Ordinance (2008) which is the same with the article 42 from directive 36/2005/CE. Until 2014 we didn't have any methodological norms for practice and we can say that we still don't have. The Order did only norms for the independent practice. Despite of the fact that the content of those norms is in a great conflict with the directive 36 and also with article 7, it was approved through a ministerial order in December 2014. In conclusion: it's an ambiguous situation and those of us who are working in the rural delivery rooms we are permanently stressed of malpractice. We don't have methodological norms for article 7, or guidelines for practice, protocols or documents who mention clearly our limits in practice or our care duties compliant with our skills.

We are working to change this situation! But if a commission from EC doesn't come soon in Romania to verify how the Directive 36/2005 is respected we will need a century to make some positive steps.

Meanwhile the Romanian women are suffering and they are in the situation to live the physiological events like pregnancy and birth as a medical process with a lot of interventions and trauma.

In Romania the human rights are not respected in this field!

In Romania, the empowerment of the midwives means that physicians will lose a gold mine: women for cesarean, or births using a lot of medication and many interventions and of course a lot of ultrasounds in pregnancy...and so on.

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