MDWF 2070/2075 Obstetrical Pharmacology, 3 cr. (2 academic credits/1 clinical)
PREREQUISITE: MDWF 2010 or currently a CPM/RM
As midwives, we are responsible for providing high quality, comprehensive care to clients during their pregnancy and the birth of their baby. The expertise of midwives includes supporting and honoring uncomplicated pregnancy and birth. It must also include the knowledge, skill and ability to take action when intervention is necessary to improve health outcomes for client and baby. This expertise requires that midwives be knowledgeable about both life-saving medications and those used to ease common discomforts of pregnancy. This course will focus on the medications, both prescribed and available over the counter, that midwives will encounter when providing care for clients and newborns during the antepartum, intrapartum and postpartum periods. The course will introduce the ways in which pregnancy impacts the absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion of drugs and the actions of these drugs in the body. Protocols for both common and life-saving medications will be developed to assist you in caring for your clients.
Learning Objectives:
1. Basic pharmacological concepts
2. Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics
3. Pharmacovigilance
4. Pharmacokinetics in pregnancy
5. Teratology
6. Over-the-counter medications in pregnancy
7. Informed consent
8. Drug protocols
9. Rh0D Immune Globulin and Rh Alloimmunization
10. Tdap vaccine and newborn pertussis
11. Rubella and pregnancy
12. Pharmacological abortive agents
13. Tocolytic therapy and preterm labor
14. Antibiotic therapy
15. Antibiotics and Group B Strep
16. Epinephrine and anaphylactic shock
17. Antihemorrhagics and postpartum hemorrhage
18. Intravenous fluids and hemorrhagic shock
19. Local anesthesia and repair of lacerations
20. Erythromycin ophthalmic ointment and ophthalmia neonatorum
21. Vitamin K and vitamin K deficiency bleeding
22. Antidepressants and Depression
23. Local resources
Course Catalog - Midwives College of Utah. (n.d.). Midwives College of Utah. Retrieved April 5, 2023, from https://www.midwifery.edu/course-catalog/