Development and implementation of strategies to address gaps in the education and regulation of midwifery service is a major, required step to reaching the MDG 5. Find out how.
Investing in Midwives Programme: Gap analysis workshopMidwives save lives. Their roles include supporting women throughout their pregnancy as well as managing complications at birth.Experts in maternal and newborn have calculated that if all Nigerian women had access to the services provided by midwives, then the lives of over 840,000 mothers and babies could be saved by 2015.Experts have also come up with ‘investing in midwives programme’ (IMP), which is channeled towards achieving the health related MDGs.To actualise the intent of the IMP, the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN), in collaboration with UNFPA Nigeria, the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) and the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), organized a three-day workshop to understand the gaps in service components of midwives, which are education, regulation and association.Regional Midwifery Advisor-Anglophone Africa of the ICM, Dr. Mrs. Jemima Dennis-Antwi told me at the workshop that “the workshop is to explore ways of helping midwives to be able to position themselves to achieve the MDGs. The midwives have the best set of skills to contribute to achieving the MDGs, especially MDG 5, and therefore, supporting midwifery education, regulation and association can bring about a strong chance of achieving the MDGs. Midwives can save a lot of lives given the right opportunities”.The national vice president of NANNM, Margaret Akinsola, also said ‘among other things, there is no framework for academic advancement for midwives. Midwives should be able to obtain degrees to the highest level there could be, and this workshop is to develop a policy approach towards that’.The IMP runs in about 30 countries to meet MDG 4-6 across Africa, Asia and Latin America. It has so far seen huge successes in most places but Nigeria is a new addition.To support the IMP in Nigeria, MamaYe worked with NCMM, UNFPA, IDM and many other stakeholders at the workshop to develop a process that will inform a 5-year strategic plan, which will lead to upgrade of education, regulation and association components of the midwifery profession, policy decision making, capacity strengthening, increase in number of midwife tutors and highly motivating career path for midwives. MamaYe Nigeria has been calling on the Nigerian government to fulfill all commitments made to midwives so that they can give the best of their service in saving lives of mothers and babies, and ultimately for Nigeria to be able to meet MDGs 4 and 5. Access overview of midwives education standard hereAccess guidelines for building strategies for midwifery frameworks here