MORE MIDWIVES - The whole story

Every year there are 4.3 million cases of preventable maternal deaths worldwide.

To ensure the health of women worldwide, it is essential to invest more money in midwifery by 2035. Every day, around 800 women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth.

According to the WHO¹, if midwives are trained according to international standards and midwifery work includes counseling, more than 80% of all maternal deaths, stillbirths and neonatal deaths, as well as serious illnesses, could be avoided.

Midwives can provide about 90% of this care and advice, according to the WHO, but they make up less than 10% of the global workforce. The gap between low-income and high- and middle-income countries is projected to widen by 2030, increasing inequality. The world currently needs 900,000 more midwives!

Perhaps this is not comprehensible in this country on these scales. Anyone who has ever experienced the care of a midwife knows that this is essential. The parents, family, the child (from stories) and we midwives remember these special, beautiful, perhaps also stressful moments of birth and pregnancy for the rest of our lives. However, our work does not just consist of making these moments possible.

A society lives from its healthy mothers and children. That is why the message “MORE MIDWIVES” is so important to me. To make this possible, we need recognition from the state and society. Actually, for exactly what we do: “competent, expert and compassionate care for pregnant women, newborns and families”.

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¹ https://www.who.int/teams/maternal-newborn-child-adolescent-health-and-ageing/maternal-health/midwifery/maternal-health-83-percent-midwifery-care