News

Midwives help lower Afghanistan's towering maternal death rate

07 January 2015
Fahima Nazary, head of midwifery at the CURE Hospital in Kabul, looks over a mother and newborn. © UNFPA Afghanistan/Rada Akbar
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News

Midwives Deliver for the Women of the World

02 May 2013
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News

In race to save women's lives, solutions are within reach, says UNFPA head

21 September 2014
<p>Maternal and neonatal death rates remain stubbornly high, studies show. But the solutions to these problems are known, and deceptively simple. <i>Photo credit: Jerome Sessini/Magnum Photos</i> </p>
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The Midwifery Programme Guidance has been developed by UNFPA in collaboration with ICM for country offices, programme managers,  partner agencies, and midwifery managers in Ministries of Health, to assist them in developing, ‘scaling up’ and/or strengthening midwifery programmes at the national level. It explains key midwifery concepts, outlines a step by step approach on how to strengthen midwifery Education, Regulation and Association, engage stakeholders, undertake effective policy advocacy and fund raising and references key available resources to do so.

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Some 15 per cent of pregnant women worldwide face potential life-threatening complications during pregnancy, delivery or afterwards. Despite this, 35 percent of new mothers in developing countries will give birth either alone or without skilled care during what is one of the most dangerous passages a woman will undergo in her entire lifetime.For a country to prevent women and newborn babies from dying during childbirth, one of the most important investments it can make is in human resources to ensure skilled birth attendance during pregnancy and delivery.

Ghana: Midwives Deliver

Shows the powerful transformation in Ghana's maternal health care system where investment in midwives promises to dramatically reduce maternal mortality. Profiles a midwife who overcomes cultural and distance barriers to encourage facility deliveries. Producer: Allison Shigo/Co-Producer: Adrian Heinzelman Engel Entertainment