The Bachelor of Midwifery is a four-year undergraduate program delivered in Turkish at universities with strong health sciences faculties, including Haliç University, designed to train autonomous, scientifically competent and clinically excellent midwives who can provide complete pregnancy, birth and postpartum care to healthy women and newborns, as well as offer family planning, gynecological health services and women’s health advocacy throughout the entire reproductive lifespan. This professional degree combines intensive theoretical education in midwifery sciences with more than 2,500 hours of supervised clinical practice in delivery rooms, pregnancy outpatient clinics, postpartum wards, neonatal units and community health centers, enabling graduates to become the primary caregivers for normal physiological births and first-line supporters for high-risk cases in collaboration with obstetricians.Throughout their studies students acquire comprehensive clinical, scientific and interpersonal skills that make them immediately effective and confident upon registration. They master normal and complicated pregnancy follow-up, prenatal diagnosis and counseling, physiological labor and birth management including water birth and non-pharmacological pain relief methods, active management of the third stage of labor, newborn resuscitation and immediate care according to Turkish Neonatal Resuscitation Program guidelines, postpartum and breastfeeding support, family planning and contraception counseling, gynecological examination and cervical cancer screening, recognition and initial management of obstetric emergencies (postpartum hemorrhage, shoulder dystocia, eclampsia, umbilical cord prolapse), infection control and safe motherhood practices, evidence-based midwifery care models, research methods and statistics in maternal health, women’s health policy and ethics, and community-based reproductive health education. Students gain extensive hands-on experience through continuous clinical placements in university hospitals, state hospitals, private maternity hospitals, birth centers and primary healthcare units across Istanbul and surrounding provinces, attend hundreds of births under one-to-one supervision, develop professional portfolios with documented competencies, and complete a graduation project that often contributes to national maternal health policies or quality improvement initiatives.Graduates of the Bachelor of Midwifery enjoy outstanding employment opportunities and strong professional status in Turkey’s rapidly expanding maternal and child health system. They are immediately registered as licensed midwives by the Ministry of Health and eagerly employed in public and private hospitals with delivery services, maternity and children’s hospitals, university hospitals, family health centers, community health centers, private birth clinics, neonatal intensive care follow-up programs, and nongovernmental organizations focused on women’s and refugee health. Many graduates work as clinical midwives in high-volume delivery units of leading institutions such as Zeynep Kamil Women and Children’s Hospital, Kanuni Sultan Süleyman Training and Research Hospital, Başakşehir Çam and Sakura City Hospital, Etlik City Hospital, Acıbadem, Memorial and Medical Park maternity services, while others choose community-based positions providing home visits and breastfeeding counseling or join academic teams as clinical instructors. The profession commands deep social respect and trust because midwives directly contribute to Turkey’s dramatic reduction in maternal and neonatal mortality over the past two decades, empower women during one of life’s most transformative experiences, and promote natural birth and breastfeeding culture. Salaries in public sector appointments are well above average for health graduates and include family and child allowances, while experienced midwives in private hospitals, birth centers or those who open independent midwifery practices achieve solid middle-class and upper-middle-class income levels together with considerable professional autonomy. In summary, the Bachelor of Midwifery offers a deeply meaningful, clinically rich and socially valuable education that transforms dedicated students into confident, respected and indispensable guardians of safe, woman-centered childbirth and women’s lifelong health.
