Asia-Pacific midwifery educators collaborate to decrease maternal and newborn mortality

90% of the necessary services for sexual and reproductive health are provided by midwives. Yet, they barely make up 10% of the workforce in the fields of reproductive, sexual, maternity, newborn, and adolescent health.

Midwives also save lives; by 2035, 4.3 million women and infants may be saved if experienced midwives attended every birth. It is vitally necessary to invest in high-quality midwifery education. For this reason, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) invited midwifery educators from 19 different countries to a regional workshop.

"Ten women throughout Asia and the Pacific pass away giving birth or during pregnancy every hour. We can put a stop to this tragedy by working together to educate midwives under international standards "said Catherine Breen Kamkong, regional senior advisor for sexual and reproductive health and rights for UNFPA.

To share information and work together to achieve a worldwide 7-step action plan to promote midwifery education, Ms. Catherine was speaking at a project that brought together global, regional, and national partners working on the topic.

 The seminar showcased effective programs including the two-year Bachelor of Science in Midwifery degree in Pakistan and the mentorship program for midwives in Afghanistan created by the Afghan Midwives Association with assistance from UNFPA.

Sengmany Khambounheuang, president of the Lao Association of Midwives, stated, "I am delighted to be here, to be part of the group and to be able to exchange information and practices and to know that midwives' abilities may be strengthened, which is enhancing the way we work with midwives.

The workshop was held at UNFPA with assistance from the Johnson and Johnson Foundation and was organized by the Alliance to Improve Midwifery Education (AIME), a global alliance that UNFPA established in collaboration with ICM, WHO, UNICEF, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Jhpiego, Laerdal Global Health, Burnet Institute, Maternity Foundation, and World Continuing Education Alliance.

To increase the quality of midwifery education for better sexual and reproductive health, maternity and newborn care, and child and adolescent health services, educators from 19 countries were exposed to innovative instructional tools and programs.

They included the World Health Organization Midwifery Toolkit and the UNFPA Faculty Development Programme and the Ongoing Professional Development Framework, all of which were created in collaboration with Burnet Institute.

"The sessions have been quite educational. Having learned from educators from various nations, I feel inspired. That has pushed me to continue to enhance our programs. According to Ms. Senemelia Hataogo, head of the department of midwifery, obstetrics, and paediatrics at the Fiji National University, "I can see they have had many obstacles [in building midwifery education programs]; I have learned a lot from what they have shared."

Also, the program enabled participants to critically discuss ideas and personal experiences that they might use in their nations. Sally Pairman, chief executive of the International Confederation of Midwives, said: "Many times you discover that someone has already got a solution to an issue that you have, and this way, we're able to share our difficulties but also share all of our answers, supporting each other to go ahead."

Education was an important step in enhancing the standard of midwifery education and lowering the incidence of maternal and newborn death in the Asia-Pacific area.

The President of the Papua New Guinea Midwifery Society, Ms. Mary Sitaing, stated that "when we train more midwives, it decreases the maternal mortality ratio in the nation, and we have seen considerable evidence to verify that, but we need to educate more."

Also, midwifery educators gained knowledge on the growth of midwifery faculty, the significance of ongoing professional education, and how to use technology and innovation to advance the development of midwives.

The midwifery educator for Pakistan's Bachelor of Science in Midwifery program, Ms. Erum Yaqub, stated, "It is a tremendous chance to be a part of this workshop, and we have received a lot of knowledge and engaged with other nations.

The resources that midwifery educators may utilize to have immediate access to the most recent and evidence-based clinical recommendations were revealed to them. "I sincerely thank all of my colleagues for exchanging best practices, cutting-edge regulations, creative technological solutions, and regional linkages to improve the standard of midwifery care for women and girls. Pros Nguon, UNFPA Cambodia Programme Analyst for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Midwifery, asserted that by working together, we can accomplish our shared objective.”

"We are faced with an unacceptable fact that every two minutes, a woman or a girl dies from preventable causes related to pregnancy or childbirth, and 99 percent of these deaths occur in low and middle-income countries," Dr. Eva-Charlotte Roos, Senior Health and Sexual and Reproductive Health Advisor at the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) said in closing the training.

She said, "Scaling up investment in educating and placing midwives in the health profession is necessary to address the critical shortage of 1 million midwives [and other sexual and reproductive health workers] globally. Sida would like to applaud UNFPA for taking the critical step of encouraging, motivating, and supporting nations to invest in trained and qualified midwives.