In a move that will make total sense to most people, health minister Ana Paula Martins has announced a pilot-project for the monitoring of low-risk pregnancies by specialist nurses.
With the situation today for pregnant women nothing short of chaotic – seeing an increasing number of births taking place ‘outside hospitals’ by default – this new plan, to start in the Setúbal peninsula in the first quarter of 2026, promises a great deal.
“There are many women who need supervision that they don’t have today,” said the minister at the end of a meeting with specialist nurses in maternal and obstetric health at Almada’s Garcia de Orta Hospital. “ That is exactly what we want to avoid. (We want) to ensure that, through this project, we can reach these women so that they are not unaccompanied” any longer.
The idea is to implement the new practice “in areas with a heightened concern regarding the monitoring of pregnant women” (areas with a high population of women of child-bearing age and low family doctor coverage).”
After the Setúbal peninsula, the project should extend to the area of Amadora-Sintra, said the minister.
But the Order of Physicians is not enthusiastic, calling the measure “a path that is profoundly wrong”.
Writing an opinion column in Correio da Manhã today, the order’s president Carlos Cortes insists everyone has their role, “and that of a doctor cannot be substituted”.
The problem with this argument is that the role of a doctor in childbirth in Portugal is being substituted on a weekly basis … by firefighters – men and women who will certainly not have had the benefit of the training that qualifies ‘specialist nurses in maternal and obstetric health’. Thus this plan can only be a step up for women, and ultimately the children who they bring into this world.
The legislative part of this project (which is not unprecedented, adds the minister. Similar practice already takes place in many other countries) will be ready by the end of the year – for implementation early 2026.
Source material: LUSA/ Correio da Manhã
