Midwives; changing the world
Happy International day of the midwife! The title in the blog is also the theme of this day this year. Midwives play a key role in a lot of births worldwide but are still not that acknowledged. That’s why this day is so important. On this day we can create awareness about the role midwives/midwifery trained health care workers can play a key part in maternal and child welfare, and that is all GRF is about!
Midwives have a crucial role in achieveing millenium goals 4 (decreasing child mortality) and millenium goal 5 (decreasing maternal mortality). When midwives and midwifery trained health care workers are trained according to international standards and they have a fully working health system they can provide 90% of the essential health care (amongst essential sexual, reproductive, maternal and newborn health services) for woman and newborns, therefore they can decrease maternal and newborn deaths by two third. According to a WHO rapport from 2014.
These are really high numbers aren’t they? From my experience working as a midwife in an underpriviledged country I have seen a lot. There is still a lot of woman in India who don’t have acces to quality health care services and that is where the midwives could come in when they are trained properly. Hospitals are very often too far or too expensive and people are not able to reach. Besides that doctors already have so much to do which makes it harder for them to give quakity health care. A midwife only focusses on child and maternal health and therefore they can fully focus on the woman and the newborn and give a lot more attention to the woman. Also these midwives are more available and then way more deliveries can be attented by midwifery trained health care workers because they are so important to keep an eye on how everything is going and do interventions when needed.
I come from a country where everything is available, where there is a good working health care system. And just because of that I want to give my knowledge here to. Here I have seen many things and heard several stories working in the slums. And what I mainly saw is that people here are a little afraid to deliver because there are so many uncertainties. They didn’t got any explenation or knowledge how the body is working and what is normal. That is where midwives can help so much, they have time, they have knowledge and they have experience to go through everything in detail and help you have faith in yourself! Because part of delivering is trusting your own body and knowing that you can do it! That’s why I want to share my knowledge. I find it so important that every single women in this country has a trained health care worker by their side who gives them attention, who supports them, who is their trust person and can make the right decisions when things go wrong because above all delivering a baby should be your greatest achievement and not your greatest fear right?
