Present status of studies in the field of midwifery in Turkey

Abstract

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine the present status of studies as midwifery published over the period 2000-2015 in Turkey. METHOD: The study, based on the literature, is of retrospective and descriptive design and was carried out between January and June 2016. Five hundred and forty-three articles were included in the field of midwifery found in a scan of the Google Academic, PubMed, and National Thesis Center databases in search of the keywords "ebelik" ("midwifery" in Turkish) and "midwifery and Turkey." Numbers and percentage calculations were used in the evaluation of the data. RESULTS: Of the articles included in the study, 30.6% were published in a journal that concerned all health-care professions, 84.7% were of observational studies, 24.2% were conducted by academics in the midwifery departments, 19.0% were thesis studies, and 75.0% were published in the Turkish language. Of academic authors in the midwifery departments, 31.6% were midwives. In an examination of the subject fields of the articles, 25.8% pertained to midwifery professional development, knowledge, opinions, roles, ethics, and malpractice in the sampling of midwives and student midwives, whereas 26.7% of the sample groups comprised midwifery and other students. CONCLUSION: This study revealed that studies made in the field of midwifery education and practice were inadequate. Increasing studies in this area might contribute to ensuring improvements in the professional development of midwifery in Turkey and more globally.