Three million newborns and hundreds of thousands of women die each
year because they lack access to maternity health services and skilled
midwifery care, the United Nations Population Fund
(<"http://www.unfpa.org/public/">UNFPA) said on the occasion of
International Day of the Midwife.
"No woman should die trying to give life. Increased investment is
needed to provide midwifery skills and life saving services and to
make midwives a priority within health programmes, policies and
budgets," said Thoraya Obaid, Executive Director of UNFPA, in a joint
statement issued yesterday with Agneta Bridges, the head of the
International Confederation of Midwives.
"The world needs midwives now more than ever to protect the lives of
women and babies," the statement said as it marked the Day, which is
observed on 5 May.
Midwives can prevent up to 90 per cent of maternal deaths where they
are authorized to practice their competencies and play a full role
during pregnancy, childbirth and after birth, according to the UNFPA.
They can also help lower long-term illness effects brought on
obstetric fistula, a severe medical condition where a hole or fistula
develops after severe or failed childbirth.
In addition, midwives provide information on family planning,
counselling, and prevention of HIV transmission from mother to child.
Reducing maternal mortality ratio, cutting the mortality rate among
children under five and halving the spread of HIV are three of the
eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which world leaders agreed
to reach by 2015.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will host a special thematic session on
accelerating progress towards the MDGs during the high-level General
Assembly debate in September in New York.
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