A BRIEF OVERVIEW ON THE MIDWIFERY TRAINING AND TRANSFORMATION OF THIS PROFESSION DURING THE FIRST FIFTEEN YEARS OF THE REPUBLIC (1923-1938)

CUMHURİYET’İN İLK ON BEŞ YILINDA EBELİK EĞİTİMİNE VE MESLEĞİN DÖNÜŞÜMÜNE DAİR KISA BİR BAKIŞ (1923-1938)

Abstract

Midwifery is one of the oldest professions in the world. Midwifes are members ofthe profession who is obliged to provide the necessary care for the mother and the newbornbefore, during and after the birth. For this reason, it has a key role in reaching the ideal ofa healthy society and healthy generations. Midwifes in Turkey, began to receive formaleducation in 1842. Because in this period the Ottoman bureaucracy and physicians beganto hold traditional/local midwifes responsible for maternal and infant deaths. The problemcould be solved if the traditional midwifes would be trained through training course.However, when the expected success in their training was not achieved, it was consideredappropriate to give diplomas to the existing ones and to supervise them. Dr. Besim ÖmerPaşa who plaid an important role in the transformation of the midwifery profession, openedthe first birthplace of the country (viladethane) in 1892. In 1909, a Midwife Academy wasestablished in Kadırga. According to the conditions determined by Dr. Besim Ömer, only thewomen younger than 30 years of age and graduated from the primary school could applyto this academy. The traditional/local midwifes that were not able to provide the abovementioned conditions were completely pushed out of the system. The midwifery professionhas gradually lost its identity as an independent profession and has started to enter under thecontrol of male physicians. During the Republican era, many attempts were made to increasethe number of qualified midwives and fifty persons Midwifery Students Dormitory wereestablished, besides the school in Istanbul. Short course programs for midwives were alsoorganized at Numune Hospitals of the country. However, even though 13 years have passedsince the proclamation of the Republic, the targeted increase in the number of midwivescould not be achieved. Considering that about eighty percent of the country’s populationlived in the villages, in 1936 it was decided to open village midwives schools. As a result,village midwives that will be employed in the villages started to get trained. However atthe end of the fifteenth year of the Republic, the desired goal of improving the quality ofmidwifery training and increasing the number of midwives could not be achieved. Moreover,as in the Ottoman Empire period, during the first fifteen years of the Republic, the maledominant medical concept leave its mark and therefore, the midwifery profession could notbe developed as an autonomous profession.

Özet

Ebelik, dünyanın en eski mesleklerinden birisidir. Ebeler, günümüzde doğum