Background: Midwives are globally recognized as health
professionals who specialize in the care of women in labor with a vital role in maternal
and newborn health care. Midwives specialize in the care of women in labor and play a
key role globally in managing normal vaginal birth, caring for pregnant women including
supporting women and their families, providing consultations, managing normal birth for
low-risk pregnant women and helping them maintain a healthy pregnancy. Despite the fact
that the midwifery profession is an autonomous profession, in some countries there are
many struggles to achieve recognition within its formal scope of work. The role of the
midwife/midwife remains unclear in many countries due to poorly articulated policies and
a lack of regulatory frameworks, which results in a lack of public clarity regarding the
role of the midwife. Objective: The purpose of this expert report is to present the role
of the midwife in protecting the health of mothers before, during and after childbirth,
to clearly define their role and importance, and the need to improve midwifery as a
profession in order to reduce the number of caesarean sections. Methods: This systematic
review includes a comprehensive literature search of published scientific articles, in
English, from 2020 to 2024, using electronic databases considered most relevant to the
topics; CINAHL, EMBASE and PubMed. In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we
included studies on the role of midwives in different countries, including Thailand, the
United States, Australia, Canada, the UK, the Netherlands, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia, to arrive at results on what the role of midwives is in
these countries. Citations without abstracts and/or full text, anonymous reports,
editorials, case reports, case series and qualitative studies were excluded. Results: In
the Law on Health Care of the FBiH, and the Law on Nursing and Midwifery of the FBiH,
the role of the midwife is insufficiently defined and she is not given sufficient
authority to work. For childbirth in BiH, in addition to midwives, a doctor must always
be present. In European and foreign countries, the role of the midwife is put in the
foreground during childbirth, so there are also hospitals where women give birth and are
cared for by midwives. Midwife-led care, an approach that is already widely practiced in
developed countries; however, it is a relatively new approach in lower-income countries.
In midwife-led care, a midwife who is well known to the mother provides care for the
low-risk pregnant woman during antenatal care, delivery and the postnatal period, rather
than being cared for by different medical staff led by an obstetrician. The primary
focus of care led by midwives is to support a healthy physiological pregnancy and birth
and to empower women to give birth naturally with little or no regular intervention.
Conclusion: It is very worrying for midwifery as a profession that there is currently a
lack of visibility of midwives in practice within their scope of practice in Bosnia and
Herzegovina. More research is needed on demonstrating the value of midwives as a primary
role in the context of midwifery practice in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
[Int. J. Biomed. Healthc. 2025; 13(1.000): 49-54]

midwives, role, health, promotion, profession, Bosnia and Herzegovina