International midwives’ Day- 2022

Since 1992, International Midwives’ Day has been held on May 5. This day is observed to honor midwives’ work and promote awareness about their importance in providing crucial care to mothers and their newborns. In addition, it is a chance for us to recognize their efforts towards making the world a better place.

HISTORY OF INTERNATIONAL MIDWIVES DAY
Midwifery is defined as skilled, competent, and loving care for pregnant females, newborn babies, and families throughout pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and the early weeks of the child’s life.

Optimizing basic biological, psychological, and sociocultural processes of birth; prompt mitigation and management of risks and intervention through referring patients to other services are some of the core characteristics. Other characteristics include respecting their wards’ unique views and circumstances and encouraging them to take proper care of themselves and the family.

Midwives, student midwives, and maternity support staff have faced adversity and risked their lives to offer excellent care to families and communities over the years. This observance was created to honor them for their contributions to our communities and rally behind them in calls for the government to invest in maternity care.

The concept for a day to commemorate and acknowledge midwives arose from a conference held by the International Confederation of Midwives in the Netherlands in 1987. It was commemorated in Iran and New Zealand, among other countries, in 2014.

The release of the State of the World’s Midwifery Report (SoWMy) coincided with the International Midwives’ Day celebrations on May 5, 2021. The report featured information from 194 nations on the workforce in the fields of Sexual, Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, and Adolescent Health (S.R.M.N.A.H.).

The United Nations Population Fund (U.N.F.P.A.), the International Confederation of Midwives (I.C.M.), the World Health Organization (WHO), and Novametrics collaborated on the report, which demonstrates growth since the first edition in 2011 and outlines obstacles and challenges to future progress. According to the research, there is a global shortfall of about 1.1 million S.R.M.N.A.H. workers, with midwives accounting for over 900,000.

On International Midwives’ Day, we celebrate midwives’ exceptional contributions to humankind while also emphasizing the accumulating statistics and proof that midwifery is a crucial component of healthcare.

Credit: National Today

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