Midwives’ day

Malta today joins countries worldwide in celebrating the International Day of the Midwife. May 5 serves as an encouragement to midwives to think about their profession and to egg us on to widen our knowledge by sharing our experiences and achievements.

This day also highlights the importance of a midwife’s role towards the health of mothers, their babies and their families.

With this years’ theme being The World Need Midwives, Now More Than Ever, one should ponder on the fact that over 340,000 women and over three million infants around the world die each year as a result of preventable pregnancy and childbirth complications.

These human beings are denied the right to existence due to social injustices. Most of these deaths would be prevented if there were enough qualified and adequate resourced midwives. The World Health Organisation, UN agencies and other international agencies have identified that midwives are the key to achieving reductions in maternal and newborn death and disabilities globally.

WHO acknowledges that there is substantial evidence to support the fact that midwives save lives.