Obstetrics and gynecology

Obstetrics and gynecology are the 2 faces of same coin, but one speaks about normal and the other talks about abnormal. Obstetrics is an entire story of motherhood right from the time of maturity, menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth and a period of time even after birth of the child.

It is the total preventive, primitive, therapeutic and rehabilitative health mother, pregnant women, a girl who is under reproductive age.Literally a reproductive age doesn’t only mean married couple but instead it is a long period of time that starts from girl`s first menstruation till she is out of her reproductive age group.On an average a reproductive age is between 17 to 45 years but it might vary according to the geographic, hereditary, environmental and other factors.

On the other side Gynecology deals with the same age but different face of women`s health problems that results from mothering but not the actual maternal problems.This clearly speaks about abnormal aspects of mothering or disorders that result from child birth or menstruation or any reproductive phenomenon with a serious pathology in the reproductive organs of women.

Components and areas of obstetrics are

1. pre pregnancy or menstrual component
2. Pregnancy related aspects
3. Labor or child birth related components
4. Post natal components that includes both mother and child related issues

Pre pregnancy or menstrual component

The first menstruation is called menarche, the obstetric component of this area focus upon normal physiological change, factors associated with menstruation, menstrual disorders, hormonal activities during menstruation, abnormal menstrual periods like prolonged periods, delayed periods, early periods, abnormal bleeding during menstruation, premenstrual and post menstrual depression, anemia related to menstruation, psychological aspects of menstruation and associated factors. In the recent obstetrics sex education has also been added as an additional component.The various services of this class is menstrual education, menstrual hygiene, nutritional counseling, sex education, sexual disorders of adolescents, marital counseling, pregnancy preparation etc

Pregnancy related aspects

Obstetrics has major focus on pregnancy with wide components in it. The obstetric components of pregnancy like normal preparation for mothering, antenatal health screening, antenatal nutritional counseling, antenatal health check up, vaccination during pregnancy, minor and major ailments during pregnancy, abnormal pregnancy, antenatal education and the preventive antenatal package, factors affecting pregnancy, regular screening and checkups, visits to the antenatal clinics, family counseling and social aspects of pregnancy etc. The major service areas include providing iron and folic acid to the mothers, health check up antenatal examinations etc.

Labor or child birth related components

The labor starts from pre-labor stage which means the initial symptoms that shows an evidence of child birth in hours or so. The labor services are again divided into 3 stages, those are 1st, 2nd and third stage.The first stage is obviously the stage next to pre-labor stage and its services.The obstetricians describe it as preparatory stage for receiving newborn, it roughly takes 12-26 hours during which labor pain is severe that makes an obstetrician and Obstetric Nurse to be on the toe and quick to manage pain and labor emergencies.The obstetric services at this stage includes oxytocin therapy, reassuring the family and mother, encouraging normal labor, decision making regarding type of child birth m social support, strict asepsis to receive the normal child.During this stage mother can be at any sort of risk making it an obstetrician more alert and careful.2nd and third stage is an actual labor stage that includes immediate care of newborn and mother soon after birth of the child.

Post natal components that includes both mother and child related issues

This is an important component of preventing hypothermia, maternal hemorrhage, postnatal complications, postnatal education, postnatal checkup. risk management.Post natal obstetrics roughly comes up to one month after the birth of a child.The major services includes both maternal and child related.

.Gynecology as science

It was only obstetrics that used to take care of both normal and abnormal aspects of pregnancy but recently there is a dichotomy in the treatment aspect of abnormal gynecological aspects. Gynecological areas do not concentrate on the normal aspects like normal menstruation, pregnancy and delivery etc but it focus on abnormal uterine conditions, cancer disorders related to uterus, ovaries, anatomical disorders, cystic illnesses, abnormal fibromatous illnesses and all the conditions that leads to an illness but those are not due to the result of normal pregnancy and normal child birth.more information click here

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