The Pan American Health Organization Launches the 4th edition of Varney's Midwifery in Spanish
New Haven, CT — June 23, 2006
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) recently launched a Spanish language version of the preeminent midwifery text Varney's Midwifery (by Helen Varney Burst, in photo above), as Parteria Profesional de Varney in collaboration with the Pan American Health and Education Foundation (PAHEF), its PALTEX textbook program, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). "Published in Spanish for the first time, Parteria Profesional de Varney will be made available to more than 500 educational centers in 20 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, in an effort to increase the proportion of births that are attended by qualified personnel," said Dr. Gina Tambini, who heads PAHO's Family and Community Health area.
She noted that the last 10 years have been crucial in promoting a process designed to improve maternal and neonatal health, and that the new text, which brings together information for expertise needed at birth, will help all those involved in maternal health to unite in an effort to provide women and children in the Americas with the best possible quality care.
The May 24, 2006 event launching the new book was attended by its principal author, Helen Varney Burst '63, co-authors Jan M. Kriebs '83 and Carolyn L. Gegor, and future co-author, Jenifer Fahey '00 . Also present was Margaret Marshall, CNM, EdD presently a senior advisor in maternal and child health and infectious diseases at USAID, with a long-standing professional relationship with PAHO, whose efforts to publish the book in Spanish were essential for the project, first suggested in 1987 by Marshall to Varney.
Varney Burst said she was grateful to the Pan American Health Organization. "I cannot begin to tell you what it means to me that my book is translated into Spanish". Since its first publication in 1980, Varney Burst said, "the book has doubled in size and in relevance", and now in Spanish, it will help all those involved in caring for pregnant women and their children. "I want to give a very special word of thanks to PAHO, for having gone from talk to action". Varney credits Marshall for bringing to fruition a textbook in Spanish for the midwives who bring health care to the women, babies, and families of Latin America and the Caribbean within the context of safe motherhood and skilled attendance at birth.
Until her retirement from YSN in 2004, Varney Burst served as a Professor in the YSN Nurse-Midwifery Specialty. She was co-originator of the mastery learning modular curriculum design for nurse-midwifery education. Her textbook, Varney's Midwifery, is the first textbook for nurse-midwives in the Western hemisphere. Varney Burst is also a past-President of the American College of Nurse-Midwives.Parteria Profesional de Varney is now available from: http://paltex.paho.org/bookdetail.asp?bookId=PAV04
