Obstetric Vademecum

One of the relevant aspects to ensure quality health care is the adequate regulation of the prescription and use of the necessary drugs and supplies. The existence of a vademecum is intended to provide greater legal certainty to professionals and not to limit or impede professional practice in accordance with high
clinical quality standards based on the available updated evidence. Vademecums are technical tools that require periodic updating.

As a result of the analysis carried out by an interdisciplinary group composed of obstetrics, obstetrics and gynecology, law and sociology, a proposal for an obstetric vade-mecum is presented that can be adopted at both national and provincial level by health authorities as part of their task of guaranteeing an environment conducive to the professional practice of obstetrics.

For the elaboration of this proposal, the following have been reviewed:

• Regulations of 12 countries and regulatory analysis on the subject.
  The regulations of the 25 jurisdictions in the country, analyzing the 22 in which there are currently regulations on the subject.
• The 11 provincial obstetric vademecums in the country that have been issued since 2014: Catamarca, Chubut, Formosa, Jujuy, La Rioja, Mendoza, Neuquén, Province of Buenos Aires, Río Negro, Salta, San Juan.
• Recommendations of international health policy governing bodies (WHO, UNFPA, UNICEF, ICM, ICN, FIGO, Ipas) on the prescription and use of drugs by obstetric professionals.
• WHO recommendations for the management of pregnancy, labor, delivery and the normal postnatal period, and their updates.
• WHO recommendations for the management of specific conditions, and their updates.