Running head: INTERPROFESSIONAL COLLABORATION

Interprofessional Collaboration

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“Interprofessional Collaborations in Maternal Health” (2018) article by Mara Podvey

explores the significance of interprofessional collaboration in the health care sector. Povdey

specifically explores the integration of interprofessional collaboration strategy with maternal

health care delivery. She describes maternal health as the women’s health status during

postpartum, childbirth, and pregnancy periods. She observes in her article that interprofessional

collaboration in the delivery of maternal health care services improves the welfare of mothers

and their children.

According to Podvey, maternal health as a critical field that involves professionals from

various healthcare disciplines in ensuring the welfare of patients. A team of health practitioners

involved in maternal healthcare delivery includes nurses, physicians, nutritionists, chiropractors,

pelvic health specialists, lactation consultants, doulas, exercise specialists, massage therapists,

and midwives. The article shows that occupational therapy in maternal health care delivery

targets the welfare of children, their mothers, and families at large. The team mentioned above

includes both medical and non-medical specialists. A team comprising both the medical and non-

medical specialists increases the efficiency of maternal health care delivery operations through a

thorough address of all challenges faced by women in their postpartum, childbirth, and

pregnancy periods. Interprofessional collaboration, in this case, enables practitioners to expand

their knowledge base to ensure that they effectively solve maternal health problems. In some

instances, occupational therapy practitioners are encouraged to acquire traditional health care

delivery skills as a supplement to the ones acquired through their respective mainstream

professional training operations.

Podvey shows in her article that interprofessional collaboration in the field of maternal

health can be split to address specific issues. These maternal health issues include physical
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health, psychosocial health, general wellness, and parenting. Firstly, maternal physical health

issues include repetitive stress injuries, low back pain, pelvic health problems, and wounds

emerging from delivery operations such as C-section. The article shows that collaborators in

maternal physical health care delivery include pelvic floor specialists, midwives, and physicians.

Physicians, in this case, diagnose physical health issues in pregnant women and others in their

postpartum period (Podvey, 2018). Physicians also offer women experiencing physical health

problems in their pregnancy and postpartum period referrals to other members of their team.

Physicians hence team up with pelvic floor specialists, massage therapists, and midwives in

performing various exercises such as intervention for strength reduction and pain and offering

preventive care education. Pelvic floor specialists also involve physicians with advanced

certification in conducting pelvic floor therapy. Physicians specifically involve massage

therapists and midwives in providing prenatal and postnatal care to patients. Secondly, maternal

psychosocial health issues include Postpartum depression (PPD), postpartum psychosis, and

postpartum anxiety. The three problems, according to Podvey, are collectively called perinatal

mood disorders. Podvey considers PPD as a common problem for many women after childbirth.

She observes that the child-mother attachment problem causes postpartum anxiety. Maternal

health physicians usually team up with nurses, social workers, and psychologists in the diagnosis

and treatment of perinatal mood disorders. It is evident in the article that professionals normally

use cognitive-behavioral methods in diagnosing and treating perinatal mood disorders. Thirdly,

maternal wellness issues include fitness and nutrition. Maternal health physicians hence team up

with physical therapists, trainers, and dieticians in ensuring that pregnant and lactating mothers

consume the right diets and maintain physical fitness. Fourth, the article shows that parenting

raises multiple issues during the postpartum period. The author observes that many parents
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experience numerous challenges when administering care to the newborn, including changing

diapers ad breastfeeding. Postpartum doulas usually team up with lactation consultants in

strengthening and developing parenting skills. These maternal health professionals offer

evidence-based information regarding parenting to mothers, daycare providers, and organizations

involved in offering parenting advice.

It is evident from the article that interprofessional collaboration in the field of maternal

health care makes it easy to diagnose and treat various physical and mental problems occurring

in women during pregnancy and the postpartum period. This teamwork also enables maternal

healthcare to effectively address additional issues such as fitness and nutrition, and parenting

problems. The teamwork work strategy ensures that these problems are solved efficiently using a

broad knowledge base. The effectiveness of interprofessional collaboration in maternal

healthcare is demonstrated in the article using three case studies. The first case study revolves

around a breastfeeding issue. This case study shows that lactation consultants (Caitlyn Foy and

Lauren Sponseller) teamed up with a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) and a pediatrician in

addressing a persistent latch issue in a child. They correctly diagnosed the child with

ankyloglossia (tongue-tie), which was restricting the motion of the child’s tongue. This

collaboration enabled a frenotomy to be conducted hence solving the child’s problem. The

second case study focuses on the provision of education to women in their pregnancy and the

postpartum period. Lee Ann Kern, being an occupational therapist, collaborates with community

members, including midwives, in providing evidence-based information to their clients. This

education aims at promoting proper development in infants, including posture and physical

activeness. The third case study focuses on a Pediatric Occupational Therapist named Aviril

Sepulveda, who collaborates with dieticians, gastroenterologist, and pediatricians in addressing

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weight gain issues and feeding infants. She also involves psychologists in addressing postpartum

depression to facilitate development of strong child-parent attachment for proper social,

cognitive, and emotional development in infants.

Podvey clearly shows that interprofessional collaboration ensures that maternal health

problems are solved effectively. She observes that women experience parenting, psychosocial,

physical, and wellness problems during pregnancy and postpartum periods. These problems

become worse in cases of first-time parents hence requiring a quick and effective response from

healthcare givers. Interprofessional collaboration is a topic that should be given serious attention

in the 21st century, where it should also be included as a course during medical professional

training.
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References

Podvey, M. (2018). Interprofessional collaborations in maternal health. SIS Quarterly Practice

Connections, 3(1), 10–12.