The ‘International Day of the Midwife’ is marked worldwide to first of all, renew the commitment of midwives around the world and to remind them of the importance of the service they render to families living everywhere. One other crucial reason for the commemoration of the day is to draw the general public’s attention to the difficulties facing midwives and the best way to help solve these problems for the good of all.
The ‘International Day of the Midwife’ is marked worldwide to first of all, renew the commitment of midwives around the world and to remind them of the importance of the service they render to families living everywhere. One other crucial reason for the commemoration of the day is to draw the general public’s attention to the difficulties facing midwives and the best way to help solve these problems for the good of all.The International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) launched the idea in 1992 following a plethora of suggestions and discussions among member associations in the late 1980s. May 5 was selected as a day to celebrate midwives living and working everywhere, especially those working in very deprived communities.As part of the World Health Organization’s goal to push for the training of more midwives, since 2011, the ICM has consistently marked May 5 on theme: “The World Needs Midwives Today More Than Ever” as part of an ongoing campaign to put the spot light on the need for more midwives.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 utilization of maternal healthcare services.(Click to download the MPs' Action leaflet on maternal and newborn health)In 2008, there were an estimated 3,780 midwives, nurse-midwives and nurses with midwifery competencies in Ghana. However, in 2010, there were an estimated 3,591 midwifery personnel in Ghana (adjusted upwards for 5% attrition). Based on the 2010 estimates of the availability of midwifery personnel, Ghana will need 1,459 more midwives in order to achieve 95% skilled birth attendance (SBA) coverage by 2015.Statistics from the Ghana Health Service (GHS) show some reduction in maternal mortality ratio from 740 per 100,000 live births in 1990 to 350 in 2010. The 2010 MDG report maintains that the trend falls short of the 5.5 per cent annual decline required to achieve the MDG target of 185 per 100,000 by 2015.In order to meet Millennium Development Goal 4 and 5, specific areas of investment must be activated. This includes health infrastructure, especially, community-based Health Planning Services (CHPS) equipped with basic emergency obstetric care services.A former Minister of Health and the Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health, Hon. Joseph Yieleh Chireh, says the government has been striving to ensure that MDG 4 and 5 are achieved by addressing key challenges facing midwifery care in Ghana.“We must, as a matter of urgency, expand the training of more midwifes in the country and encourage as many of them as possible to train in the profession. Collaboration between the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service is yielding results with the establishment of more training facilities to churn out more midwives.”He said: “there is a need to also expand physical access to quality healthcare in the very remote part of the country so as to encourage as many trained midwives as possible to work from such areas they can be difficult terrains due to poor facilities and conditions. But we need to do more to encourage them. The more midwives we have the better for all of us.”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 are all realistic ways of achieving these targets, he noted.Hon. Hieleh Chireh said there is also the need for regular updates of maternal mortality cases to generate evidence to inform policy decisions, adding “various reports by international bodies have clearly indicated how midwifery care is one of the most effective ways to combat maternal and infant mortality.”“At the committee level, we are ensuring that the MoH and the GES address some of these pertinent concerns and utilize their budgetary allocations appropriately. After all, a country can’t be said to be healthy if its pregnant women are dying at the current rate as is the case in Ghana,” Hon. Yieleh Chiereh assured.Research shows that doubling the estimated current number of midwives providing obstetric care and all aspects of reproductive health care would ensure that 10% of maternal deaths could be averted while 11% neonatal deaths could be averted in 2015.Research by MamaYe Ghana indicates that if all women delivered with a midwife in a facility providing fully functioning Basic Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (BeMONC), as well as received all other aspects of reproductive care that midwives deliver, 69% of maternal deaths could be averted or alternatively, 2,000 maternal deaths could be averted in 2015.In the same vein, 61% of neonatal deaths could be averted. Meaning, 15,500 neonatal deaths could be averted in 2015 if all women delivered with a midwife in a facility providing fully functioning BeMONC.