The World Needs Midwives Now More Than Ever

05 May,2009

He stated that MoPH increased numbers of midwife from less than 500 in 2001 to around 2320 in 2008. MoPH is going to train 6000 more midwives by 2013. For this purpose 27 institutions are trying their best to train midwives across the country.Dr. Huson Banu Ghazanfar, the Minister of Women Affairs was another speaker of the gathering. She said that she was glad to participate in IDM, which is an appropriate celebration to recognize efforts and sacrifices of midwives in saving lives of mothers and babies. She said that it was very happy time to hear that 27 schools were training midwives across the country.Ms. Pashtun Azfari and Ms. Pashtun Amiri were the other speakers who talked on behalf of Afghan Midwives Association.

5 May 2009, International Day of the Midwife is celebrated under the theme of The World Needs Midwives Now More Than Ever! Midwife numbers must be expanded to achieve Millennium Development Goals 4, 5 and 6 by 2015. Therefore, 350,000 more midwives are needed. This statement is mentioned in the World Health Report 2005. Over 60% of women in most of the developing countries still do not have skilled care during childbirth. This is also true for Afghanistan. Based on a survey done by the Johns Hopkins University in 2007, 67% of pregnant Afghan women do not have access to skilled birth attendants.

Midwives are key healthcare providers in achieving MDG 5, which is Improving Maternal Health. That is the clear message coming from the WHO, UNFPA, UNICEF and the World Bank: the four UN agencies that have recently united to pledge increased support to countries with the highest maternal mortality rates.Midwives provide skilled newborn care to achieve MDG 4 which is to Reduce Child Mortality. Every year in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia more than 1 million infants die within their first 24 hours of life due to lack of adequate health services, including midwifery care.Midwives are essential to achieve MDG 6 which is to Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Other Disease. Thousands of pregnant women and hundreds of thousands of newborns die each year due to preventable disease.