Besim Ömer was one of the pioneering obstetricians in the Ottoman Empire and ostensibly the most prominent among them for establishing the first maternity hospital and for improving midwifery education. He was born in 1862 in Istanbul, and in 1879 he started his professional training at the School of Medicine. After assisting Doctor Vahit, the instructor of midwifery in the same school, for a short period, in 1887 he went to Paris to specialize in obstetrics and puériculture (child care). In Paris he also followed the classes of Pierre-Constant Budin as well as Aldolphe Pinard. Pinard was at that time one of the pioneers of French eugenics, and his eugenicist ideas left a deep imprint on Besim Ömer's latter work as one of the leading figures of Ottoman and early republican pronatalism and eugenics. Upon his return to Istanbul in November 1891, Besim Ömer started to teach midwifery and obstetrics to both the male students at the School of Medicine and the midwives at the Midwifery School.

In addition to his specialization in midwifery and obstetrics, Besim Ömer worked in other fields and published extensively, both in his field and on issues related to hygiene hıfzısıhha). Besides his achievements in enhancing midwifery education, he contributed largely to the formation of modern nursery education. Moreover, he was actively involved in philanthropic activities and took part in the formation of the Turkish Red Crescent, the Association to Fight Tuberculosis (Verem Savas Dernegi), and the Association to Protect Children (Himaye-i Etfal Cemiyeti).