Summary

Recent changes in women’s health are focused on promoting health, decreasing mortality, decreasing stigma, and supporting persons AFAB in advocating for themselves to receive quality health care. Organizations such as the CDC and WHO have published recommendations and practice suggestions to guide health-care policy and address social determinants of health. Nurses play an important role in decreasing the stigma of taboo topics by providing education and support. Nurses also encourage self-advocacy in health care by practicing shared decision making and informed consent. The nurse can be a strong change agent.

Persons AFAB of all ages, races, gender identities, and stages of life seek OB-GYN care. OB-GYN care has evolved over the past century to become more inclusive, self-motivated, and focused on the desires of the patient. Childbirth care and education evolved from home care to hospital care. And hospital care evolved so that partners were able to attend the births of their babies and birthing persons were able to have support necessary to progress through labor to birth. These evolutions in care have led to and evolved into a group effort, a team-based approach in which all parties work together with best outcomes as the goal.

Regionalizing health care directs high-risk pregnant persons to a high-acuity facility to decrease maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality. It also promotes the use of birth centers and community hospitals for low-risk pregnancies. Community health services focus on the persons in a specific area to increase health promotion and disease prevention. Community health nursing is focused on assessing the health of the community, developing plans to address inequities, and providing education for those in the community. Community-based nursing provides care to people in the community, such as diabetes treatment, COVID-19 testing, and blood pressure assessments. Nurses play an important role in the health and well-being of the community.

The maternal-newborn nurse is engaged in situations featuring ethical and legal issues. At times, these issues can cause distress when the nurse does not agree with their patient’s decisions. The nurse can use the standards of practice to guide safe, nonjudgmental care. Risk management and QSEN are utilized to prevent or address errors, such as medication administration errors or errors of omission. Nurses are committed to providing the best care with quality outcomes.