The Austrian Medical Association looks back on five decades of success with the Mother-Child Pass and presents concepts for the future.
Vienna (OTS) – “The mother-child pass was and is a medical-historical milestone with an enormous positive impact,” said Johannes Steinhart, President of the Austrian Medical Association, emphasizing the importance of the mother-child pass at a press conference. This prime example of preventive medicine was brought to life by the then Minister of Health Ingrid Leodolter with the very intensive involvement of the medical association and has been constantly developed and improved since then, recalled Steinhart. The consistent integration of doctors into these developments ensured practical relevance and realism. A few years ago, the Medical Association founded its own mother-child pass commission and thus played a leading role in ensuring a high-quality and science-based adaptation of the mother-child pass. “It is gratifying that politicians also recognize the future importance of the mother-child pass and are providing it with better financial resources. Since last year, an additional 17 million euros have been available per year, and now it is a matter of using these additional funds sensibly and in the best possible way for the benefit of mothers and children,” said Steinhart.
Role of general practice
The introduction of the mother-child pass is a milestone in health care, emphasized Edgar Wutscher, Vice President of the Austrian Medical Association and Chairman of the Federal Curia: “It is a role model for successful preventative medicine and still occupies a leading position in European preventive medicine today “, he said. Especially in the first decades, but even now especially in rural areas, general practitioners look after pregnant women and children as part of the mother-child pass. They also play an important role in the “internal examination”, which is carried out between the 17th and 20th weeks of pregnancy.
As part of the scheduled examination intervals, general practitioners also offer the prescribed laboratory tests in a straightforward manner – be it an assessment of the blood count, examination for infectious agents or even a blood sugar load test. For the children, ongoing nutritional advice, advice on obesity and the like, which is offered on site, also plays a crucial role: “Continuous accompanying care makes a decisive contribution to the good course of the pregnancy and the healthy development of the children,” said Wutscher. Ultimately, checking the vaccination status of the pregnant woman and then carrying out the vaccinations specified in the vaccination plan is an important part of prevention. “Proper vaccination protection for the mother also means passive immunization for the infant, and the children’s vaccinations are essential precautions,” said Wutscher.
Pacemaker for preventive medicine
“The Austrian mother-child pass is a great political achievement and one of the most beautiful successes in Austrian medical history,” said Thomas Fiedler, chairman of the Federal Specialist Group for Gynecology and Obstetrics of the Austrian Medical Association. Significant milestones were not only the introduction of ultrasound examinations, but also laboratory chemical examinations.
As far as the expansion of the mother-child pass is concerned, there is a lively exchange with science as well as with social insurance and the Ministry of Health: “This successful model should of course continue to develop in order to secure the future of this precautionary tool, but at the same time the financial viability and the Reasonableness must be taken into consideration by the parents,” said Fiedler.
What is unique about this preventative care model is the integration of the possibilities offered by modern medicine combined with a financial incentive system: “No other preventive examination is so seamlessly and so popularly accepted as the mother-child pass,” said Fiedler. The mother-child pass should therefore be seen as a pacesetter for all further future considerations to strengthen preventative medicine and thus further improve the health system in Austria. “Let us be happy about 50 years of success and take the great result as a mandate to develop analog models in preventative medicine,” Fiedler appealed to social security and politics.
Accompanying the children
“From a pediatrician perspective, the mother-child pass is an extremely important precautionary tool for the physical well-being and overall development of our children,” said Bernhard Jochum, chairman of the Federal Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine Group of the Austrian Medical Association. The mother-child passport examinations not only accompany the child’s development and closely monitor psychomotor developments, but also support the parents: “Especially these days there is a lot of information on the Internet that also stirs up fears among parents and raise questions about the development of their children, which we can often put into perspective in consultations with the doctor and thus reassure the families,” said Jochum.
From a pediatrician’s perspective, one of the milestones in the further medical development of the mother-child pass is hip sonography, which means that operations can be prevented almost 100 percent.
For the future, further development would make sense to extend preventive examinations beyond the 5th birthday. “Unfortunately, there is a gap in provision between the fifth and 18th birthday that cannot be sufficiently filled by school examinations,” emphasized Jochum. Especially in this age range, there are many developmental stages – not just puberty – that should be looked after by a doctor: “The expansion would be an absolute gain in preventive medicine,” Jochum is convinced.
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Austrian Medical Association
Mag. Sophie Niedenzu, MSc
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