International Day of the Midwife 5 May 2011
Over 340,000 women die each year in childbirth, with millions more suffering infection and disability as a result of preventable maternal causes. UN agencies, the WHO and a host of civil society organisations, including Soroptimist International, are committed to addressing maternal mortality and morbidity through greater access to essential midwifery care worldwide, particularly in developing countries where 90% of maternal deaths occur.
What does “Maternal health” refer to? According to the WHO, maternal health refers to the health of women during pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. While motherhood is often a positive and fulfilling experience, for too many women it is associated with suffering, ill-health and even death.
The major direct causes of maternal morbidity and mortality include haemorrhage, infection, high blood pressure, unsafe abortion, and obstructed labour. Midwives significantly reduce the likelihood of these problems leading to death.
It is clear that the world needs midwives more than ever. Access to essential midwifery services reduces maternal and infant mortality and reduces the cycle of poverty in developing countries. This is at the core of MDG 5, ‘Improving Maternal Health’.
Soroptimists all over the world are taking up the challenge of MDG 5. SI South West Pacific have launched their new Federation Project, Birthing in the Pacific, which is based in Papua New Guinea. This is a fantastic project, targeting a country which has high rates of maternal mortality and pregnancy related complications. As Di Lockwood from SISWP explained in her SoroptiVoice Blog last week, the project focuses on up skilling midwives:
“The project aims to reduce the risk of maternal and infant mortality by improving the maternity skills of midwives and nurses in Papua New Guinea. This is a focus on MDG 5 A.2 which seeks to increase the proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel, a factor widely recognised as the single most effective way of reducing maternal and infant mortality in developing nations.
Initially to be located in the 3 towns where Soroptimist clubs exist, this model of up skilling nurses has gained support from the Ministry of Health in PNG, the World Health Organisation, AusAID, other NGOs, education centres and health services. The project is about Soroptimists providing resources to facilitate access to basic up skilling education programmes and hence stimulating a change in practice for those people, including Village Birthing Attendants, who attend birthing women.
The first priority has been to select and equip midwives to attend competency-based courses. Clubs have been challenged to “sponsor a midwife” at a cost of $300 to cover airfare, safe accommodation and attendance at a two week course.
Secondly, it is intended to provide a kit of essential basic clinical tools for midwives to enable them to monitor the health status of the birthing mother and baby. This simple kit will cost about $30.
The third priority is to assist the PNG Midwives Society to function effectively as a leading professional organisation and also to register and monitor the change in practice of those nurses who have undertaken the course.
Education is at the heart of change and this project seeks to empower nurses to become skilled practitioners who achieve better outcomes for pregnant women and their babies in this culturally complex and challenging nation.”
This is an incredibly exciting project and we look forward to bringing you more news from Birthing in the Pacific as the project gets underway!
SI Clubs across the world have been supporting midwives through various fundraising projects and partnerships. SI Deauville-Trouville in France have a fundraising partnership with Gynécologie Sans Frontiers. This NGO was founded in 1995 by and for doctors and midwives. They help in regions which lack essential medical services.
The club recently held a fundraiser to assist their partnership with Gynécologie Sans Frontières. The club helps to finance a free health centre for mothers and their children in Tannannarive, Madagascar, through funding the training and recruitment of nurses, doctors and midwives.
SI Maidstone in the UK is also funding midwives, this time through IDEALS (International Disaster Emergency with Long Term Support). This charity was started by a local surgeon in the aftermath of the Bosnian War. After the earthquake disaster in Northern Pakistan in 2005 it became clear that the high death rate in new born babies was partly due to unskilled women acting as midwives. The problem has become even more severe since the devastating floods of last summer washed away essential local infrastructure.
IDEALS set up a training course for midwives in an area on the borders of Aghanistan and Northern Pakistan. The fee to train each midwife is £2,000. To date the SI Maidstone has raised enough money to finance two of the 15 midwives who enrolled on the course last year. These midwives took their Pakistan Nursing Council exams in October 2010 and are now helping the women of this trouble area have a safe pregnancy and birthing experience.
There are many more examples of club projects supporting midwives. Please do share your project stories on facebook or twitter as we remember the great work midwives do and the support Soroptimists are providing locally, nationally and internationally.