May 5: International Day of the midwife (read more). (04-05-2010)

In countries like Afghanistan, Sierre Leone and Southern Sudan, the life time risk of dying from pregnancy and childbirth is more than 1000 times greater than in Western European countries. In these countries, with the highest maternal mortality in the world, one in eight women dies during her course of life from the consequences of pregnancy and childbirth. By comparison, in Western Europe this is ‘only’ one out of 8200 women. This is an extremely distressing and unacceptable inequity.

Factors playing a role include the number of pregnancies per woman in her life: an average of seven in Afghanistan compared to less than two in Western countries. Also access to contraception, access to prenatal care, the presence of a skilled midwife, access to a hospital if something goes wrong, the availability of postnatal care, etc., make that maternal mortality is far too high. Midwives play a major role in helping to reduce maternal mortality. It is therefore extremely important that the severe shortage of trained midwives in these countries is reduced.

HealthNet TPO is contributing for years through educating midwifes in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, few young women have completed primary school. Fathers and other influential people within the community do not always agree with the fact that these women go to a (boarding) midwifery school and then actually work. Hence more is needed than taking care of the midwife training: suitable girls need to get additional education before they can enter the midwifery training, and negotiation with families and communities is needed. In this discussion, the community is informed about the value of this education so that the women after two years will be able to work as a midwife in their community. These midwifes ultimately often make the difference between life and death for both mother and child.

Do you want to support this project? Find out more on the website Pifworld.com