WHO guidelines and the role of the physician in task sharing in safe abortion care

Publication date: Available online 29 July 2019Source: Best Practice & Research Clinical Obstetrics & GynaecologyAuthor(s): Caron Kim, Annik Sorhaindo, Bela GanatraAbstractGlobally, many women undergo unsafe abortion despite the fact that abortion is extremely safe when done in accordance with recommended guidelines. As such, a high number of women suffer from abortion-related complications and unsafe abortion remains an important cause of maternal mortality. The high percentage of unsafe abortion is attributed to the inability of women to access safe abortion services. A critical barrier to access is the lack of trained providers. In order to address this problem, task sharing and the expansion of the health worker roles in abortion care has become a public health strategy to mitigate health worker shortages and to reduce unsafe abortion. This chapter provides an overview of the WHO guidance on task sharing in safe abortion care, discusses the special role of physicians and highlights the complexity of implementing task sharing by looking at six country case studies.
Source: Best Practice and Research Clinical Obstetrics and Gynaecology - Category: OBGYN Source Type: research