Midwives celebrate International Midwives Day

International Midwives day is celebrated every year on the 5th May.
The recurrent International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) theme for 2012 is ‘The world needs midwives now more than ever.’
This theme was created in 2009 in response to a need to increase midwife numbers around the world to achieve the WHO Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) by 2015.

In total 350,000 more midwives are needed by 2015 in order to Reduce Child Mortality (MDG 4) and Improve Maternal Health, (MDG 5) worldwide.
This year midwives and guests took an hour out of their busy day at Vila Central Hospital (VCH) on Friday 4th May, to celebrate and acknowledge the work that midwives do.

Midwives paid tribute to midwives past and present then shared with the audience, what it is, to be a midwife.
Heartfelt thanks went out to all those families and communities who continue to support midwives in all areas of health in Vanuatu.
Representatives from WHO, Dr Rufina Latu and AusAID, Kendra Derousseau spoke briefly, acknowledging the midwife’s dedication and commitment to woman and their families, during pregnancy, childbirth and postnatal.

Midwives are an essential part of an effective healthcare system and promoting good health and making pregnancies and childbirth safe. UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund and ICM together commended the work that midwives do. UNFPA and ICM are leading efforts to promote midwifery around the world. The two organizations scaled up efforts to strengthen midwifery training programmes and policies in 30 countries. Last year, together with 28 partners, UNFPA and ICM also launched the first ever State of the World’s Midwifery report, which showed that no
health-care system can be efficient and effective if it ignores the importance of midwifery. Every woman deserves the care of a qualified, competent midwife and referral to an obstetrician when needed. This is a fundamental right.

AusAID continues to support maternal health through sponsorship and project work all to assist the reduction in maternal and neonatal mortality and morbidity in Vanuatu. Over the past year VCH has seen many changes in the maternity unit. With financial support from AusAID, VCH has extended and renovated the special care baby nursery which has already improved neonatal outcomes. Over the remainder of the year further projects to improve postnatal and newborn wellness will be developed.