Campaign to promote normal birth

Keeping Birth Normal is the theme that will promoted by midwives throughout the Southern European region on Saturday, the International Day of the Midwife.

A common activity, which will also be marked by the Malta Midwives Association, will involve flying white balloons at noon. The association will be holding an event on the day at Freedom Square, Valletta, at 11.30 a.m., with the message Let's Get Together To Celebrate The Natural Miracle Of Birth.

The decision to hold the event follows the first meeting of the Southern European region earlier this year that was attended by the association's committee members Rita Pace Parascandalo and Mary Buttigieg Said.

Keeping childbirth normal is one of the midwife's fundamental roles. According to a World Health Organisation report in 2005, maternal and neonatal mortality rates are reduced where pregnant women have access to midwifery care.

The International Confederation of Midwives and WHO recognise the midwife as the most appropriate healthcare professional to promote normal childbirth and to care for women during pregnancy, labour and the postnatal period. For centuries, the midwife has worked in partnership with women, families and communities, to achieve the best pregnancy outcome.

By providing information to women and their families, the midwife promotes the understanding of birth as a normal life process and enables women to make informed choices during childbirth, including the use of technology in a timely and appropriate manner.

Normal birth means that a woman commences labour spontaneously and completes the process without unnecessary clinical interventions with the infant being born spontaneously at term.

However, despite proven long-term maternal and child health benefits from normal childbirth, the concept of childbirth as a normal process is in decline.

Evidence suggests that birth technologies and the "medicalisation" of childbirth, which are not always based on clinical needs, seem to dominate all over the world. This unfortunately established trend increases the possibility of long-term physical and psychosocial problems for both mother and baby.