Let's invest more in midwifery training, they are critical to maternal health - RISE-Ghana
Bolgatanga-based non-governmental organisation, RISE-Ghana, is calling for investment in the training of midwives to help improve maternal health outcomes and ensures more babies are born alive on time and healthy.
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The NGO believes that better health outcomes are achieved when mothers and babies are less likely to need medical care in the short- and long-term.
RISE-Ghana in a statement signed and issued by its Executive Director, Awal Ahmed Kariama, on May 5, 2024, to mark this year's International Day for Midwives, said midwives empower women to manage their own reproductive health, advance their rights, and economic resilience by providing them with education on varied issues including, contraception, comprehensive abortion care and support services.
"RISE-Ghana joins the rest of the world to salute midwives across the globe and particular those working under difficult conditions to deliver much needed quality services to mothers and babies," he said.
The 2024 IDM was celebrated on the theme: "Midwives: A Vital Climate Solution."
The International Day of the Midwife is annually celebrated on 5 May. It was established in 1992 by the International Confederation of Midwives to celebrate and raise awareness about the midwifery profession.
Touching on the theme for this year, Mr Kariama said this year’s team could not have come at a better time than now when climate change poses the greatest health challenge evidenced by increased heatwaves and natural disasters which sadly disproportionately affects women and babies.
Below is the RISE-Ghana statement
PRESS RELEASE: INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE MIDWIFE 2024.
RISE-Ghana joins the rest of the world to salute midwives across the globe and particular those working under difficult conditions to deliver much needed quality services to mothers and babies.
The theme for the 2024 IDM is: Midwives: A Vital Climate Solution. This year’s team could not have come at a better time than now when climate change poses the greatest health challenge evidenced by increased heatwaves and natural disasters which sadly disproportionately affects women and babies.
Evidence shows that, Healthcare services are responsible for 5% of greenhouse gas emissions globally. Midwives hold a huge potential to adapt health systems and advance local and international targets to lower carbon emission. Their vital solutions to climate change can be seen and felt in many respects for instance:
1. Midwives deliver environmentally sustainable health services and play a key role in making health systems more climate resilient.
2. By providing climate-friendly Sexual, Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn and Adolescent Health Service at doorsteps and in communities where people live, they reduce the need for travel to health facilities thereby freeing-up time for obstetricians to care for women with complex care needs, reducing the carbon footprint of health services and making them more sustainable and accessible for everyone.
3. By supporting the continuum of midwife care, they improve maternal health outcomes and ensures more babies are born alive, on time and healthy. Better health outcomes mean mothers and babies are less likely to need medical care in the short- and long-term. This reduces the use of medical resources and limits medical waste.
4. By helping mothers practice optimal breastfeeding, midwives increase the duration of breastfeeding, thereby eliminating carbon footprints associated with packaging or shipping, saving water and improving the health of women and babies. Midwives supporting women to breastfeed successfully is good for babies, women and the planet!
5. By providing education, contraception, comprehensive abortion care and support, midwives empower women to manage their own reproductive health, advance their women’s rights and economic resilience and thereby reduce their vulnerability to the impacts of climate change.
Whiles calling on all stakeholders to recognize and invest in the role of midwives in advancing a safer planet, we also wish to use the occasion to thank our partners and donors such as UNICEF-Ghana, CDD-Ghana/Hewlett Foundation, the STAR-Ghana Foundation led Gender Rights and Empowerement Programme (GREP) funded by the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office of the United Kingdom and the Australian High Commission in Ghana for the huge technical and financial investment over the years to improve the quality of care, universal health coverage, strengthen health systems towards better maternal and child health outcomes.
#IDM2024 #MidwivesAndClimate
Counting on your usual cooperation.
Thank you.
Your sincerely,
signed
Awal Ahmed Kariama
Executive Director