Midwives promote safe motherhood

Ghana joined midwives around the world to celebrate the annual ‘International Day of the Midwife’ on May 5. The International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) established the idea of the ‘International Day of the Midwife’ following suggestions and discussions among member associations in the late 1980s and launched the initiative formally in 1992.

The International Day of the Midwife is an occasion for every individual midwife to think about the many others in the profession, make new contacts within and outside midwifery, and widen the knowledge base of what midwives do for the world.

In the years leading up to 2015, ICM is using the overarching theme “The World Needs Midwives Today More Than Ever” as part of an ongoing campaign to highlight the need for midwives. This reflects the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) call for midwives and the need to accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (especially MDGs 4 and 5).


Drive for safer motherhood
The drive for safer motherhood continues to gain strength as more women worldwide achieve access to midwifery care. Ghana, like other developing countries with high maternal mortality rates, has also initiated measures to ensure safe motherhood and made significant progress in increasing access and utilisation of maternal healthcare services.

These measures are aimed at providing every Ghanaian woman in her reproductive age, irrespective of the geographical location or socio-economic status, access to skilled care during pregnancy, childbirth and postnatal periods. The need for a collective and concert effort by all stakeholders, especially government, to increase investment in basic healthcare, had become paramount.

Specific areas of investment include health infrastructure, especially, Community-based Health Planning Services (CHPS) equipped with basic emergency obstetric care services. Others are equity in access to reproductive health services, especially, increase in number of trained midwives, increased financing for and provision of family planning services and equitable distribution of health care staff across Ghana.


Midwifery care
Evidence is growing that midwifery care is one of the most effective ways to combat maternal and infant mortality. The State of the World’s Midwifery 2011, published by the United Nations Populations Fund (UNFPA) last year, demonstrates conclusively how midwives save the lives of mothers and babies

The report, launched at the ICM Triennial congress in Durban in June 2012, provides compelling statistical evidence for the vital role midwives play in saving lives of mothers and babies. Behind the report stand some of the key international partners in maternal and reproductive health. Based on data gathered via UN and partner representatives (UNFPA, WHO, UNICEF, etc) from 58 countries all over the world, it highlights the importance of ICM’s mission to strengthen midwifery around the world. And it demonstrates how increasing the number of trained midwives will substantially reduce mother and infant deaths globally.

With the equipment and support they need, skilled midwives can spell the difference between life and death for close to 300,000 women each year, and 10 times that many infants.

On the International Day of the Midwife observed on May 5, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM), celebrated the work of midwives and the myriad of other things they do every day to contribute to the wellbeing of mothers and children around the world. The tireless work of midwives is also a crucial step towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) four and five, targets A and B, by 2015 and beyond.


Caring for women
In addition to their work and caring for women during and after childbirth, to ensure safe deliveries and providing essential newborn care, midwives provide a wide range of assistance in humanitarian emergencies. And they train and supervise community health workers to provide health information and promote safer practices.

Importantly, midwives are also key to ensuring universal access to voluntary family planning. This could help prevent 87 million unintended pregnancies, so many of which result in unsafe abortions in developing countries, and close to a third of all maternal deaths. About 222 million women want to delay or avoid pregnancies but lack the modern means to do so. Midwives’ invaluable counselling skills are instrumental in empowering young couples and women to make the decisions that are right for their particular situations.

Economic differences, inequalities in countries and inaccessibility of services in some areas have contributed to a shortage of some 350,000 midwives at a time when the world needed midwives more than ever.

The two bodies have urged all nations to work together to address the inequalities and inaccessibility of midwifery services. “We encourage them to support quality training, innovative technologies and an enabling environment for midwives to match the vital role they play in communities and societies, especially in developing countries,” they said.

The two bodies also reiterate their commitment to investments to strengthen quality midwifery, which will, in turn, promote healthier families, communities and nations.

In another statement, MamaYe Ghana has called on the Ministry of Health to urgently address the shortfall in the number of midwives needed to help Ghanaian mothers deliver safely.

MamaYe Ghana campaign
MamaYe Ghana is a campaign initiated by Evidence for Action (E4A), a multi-year programme which aims to improve maternal and newborn survival in sub-Saharan Africa. Funded by the UK Department for International Development, the campaign focuses on using a strategic combination of evidence, advocacy and accountability to save lives in Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Tanzania.

The statement said midwives played a vital role in supporting women throughout their pregnancy, as well as being highly trained to manage complications at birth. Many midwives travel long distances and work long hours to give high quality care to women in their community. Experts in maternal and newborn statistics have calculated that if all Ghanaian women had access to the services provided by midwives, then the lives of up to 2,000 mothers and 15,500 babies could be saved by 2015.

Speaking on behalf of the MamaYe campaign, Prof. Richard Adanu said, “It is right that we honour our midwives on International Day of the Midwife. We applaud the government’s commitment to strengthen its free maternal health policy, but more needs to be done to expand this critical workforce.”

Prof. Adanu added, “We are inviting Ghanaians to show their appreciation of midwives and help inspire our youth to become midwives in the future. You can do this by tweeting a thank you message for their hard work, or uploading your photographs of support to our Facebook page, or perhaps send us a picture of an inspirational midwife from your community.”