International Midwives Day 2019

International Midwives Day 2019 was celebrated by the midwives all over the world on Sunday, the 5^th of May.

The International Day of the Midwife 2019 theme was “Midwives: Defenders of Women’s Rights”.

The main event was hosted by WHO Chief Nursing Officer and Taskforce on Nursing and Midwifery. The event’s highlight was the play named ‘Born in the Ruins’ which showcased the work of the midwives across the world in the time of emergency and conflict situation in the world. Various discussions and talks were also conducted by a panel of speakers.

In New Zealand, midwives across the country held a series of events to celebrate the occasion with great zeal and zest. The events highlighted the importance of a midwife in the life of a woman.

In Hyderabad, the Health Minister addressed a programme held on the occasion and focused on the importance of midwives in the modern time. He also expressed his concern on the increasing number of operations during child birth and highlighted the role of doctors and midwives for normal deliveries. Around 30 midwives were awarded certificates during the event.

International Midwives Day History

International Midwives Day is celebrated every year on international level to commemorate and increase the awareness about the contribution of the midwives towards the patients all over the world. 5^th of May was established to be celebrated as a day to honor the midwives for their big contribution towards the health of their nations. It is celebrated with great enthusiasm and joy in more than 50 countries around the world.

First International Day of the Midwife (IDM) was launched and celebrated on 5^th of May in the year 1991 using the theme “Towards safe birth for all by the year 2000”. The day was established to be celebrated on annual basis to fulfill the demand of following theme “The World Needs Midwives Now More Than Ever”.

International Midwives Day was decided celebrating annually in the conference of International Confederation of Midwives (ICM), Netherlands in 1987. ICM affiliates midwives from all the organizations to its ICM express in order to develop harmony and improve the knowledge and skills of all the midwives. Varieties of events are organized during the celebration in order to support the “Safe Motherhood” as well as promote the midwifery profession throughout the world by increasing the awareness about their contributions.

Why International Midwives Day is Celebrated

Partners all around the world join as a member of the International Confederation of Midwives to mark 5^th of May as International Day of the Midwife. They celebrate this event throughout the week by participating in many activities. It is celebrated to highlight the importance of their role played in achieving the all over health of their nations.

According to the statistics, it is noted that approximately 350 000 women are dying every year due to pregnancy hazards or during child birth, around 2 million newborns babies are dying just after their birth or within 24 hours of birth and around 2.6 million of the cases are stillbirths. Such death rates can be lessened and prevented by adding some precautions and safety measures to the pregnant women and new born babies.

In order to make some positive efforts towards the health of the nation, International Day of the Midwife has been started celebrating every year to increase awareness about the roles of midwives as well as to fulfill the increasing needs of more midwives all over the world. The universal efforts, of implementing well-educated and harmonious midwifery workforce in all the functioning health systems by availing proper equipments and other supplies, has been started to prevent up to 60% of the maternal and child death rates throughout the world.

As there is critical shortage of the skilled and energetic midwives on global basis, it is very necessary to fulfill the needs of health systems. Shortage of the skilled midwives is faced by all the countries due to many reasons such as insufficient training facility, poor workforce planning and management, low quality education system, no precaution measures for the midwives from HIV/AIDS and many more. International Midwives Day is celebrated to ensure the universal coverage of the maternity care by fulfilling the need of estimated (350 000) number of midwives globally.

A big step has been taken by the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) to enhance collaboration among obstetricians, gynecologists and midwives in order to strengthen the midwifery all across the world. International Day of the Midwife is celebrated by the Virtual International Day of the Midwife (VIDM) by bringing together the midwives, consumers, students and others interested in the childbirth all across the globe.

During the celebration of the day, midwifery services are encouraged by enhancing the quality training, implementing innovative technologies, enabling required environment for the midwives to play vital roles in the particular community, society and thus in developing countries.

International Midwives Day Celebration

International midwives day is a global campaign being celebrated all over the globe in order to highlight the importance of midwives towards the health of the mothers and babies by organizing lots of activities. It is celebrated every year using a particular theme of the year to make it effective and fulfill the objectives of the celebration.

Midwives from local health centers, Midwives Associations as well as supporters of the midwifery all over the world celebrate this day by developing their own significant activities. Some of the activities which are organized to celebrate this event are performance activities, singing contest, karaoke, march, run, street parade, public place rallies, organizing stalls in the popular market, information and advice activities, meetings, workshops, conferences, news and many more activities organized by the government, NGOs and other non-government organizations.

Lots of activities are organized during the celebration to increase the local or national level publicity as widely as possible about the midwives role and requirement. It provides a significant opportunity for each and every midwife to think about profession to grow, widen their knowledge and skills. It is also publicized using social media sites through sharing ideas and post activities. Global Midwifery Symposium is also organized in the Kuala Lumpur using the title of “Strengthening Quality Midwifery Care: Making Strides, Addressing Challenges”. It is organized to highlight the key issues and addressing the midwifery service availability, acceptability, accessibility and enhancing the care quality.

Since midwifery services are very significant to the women and their families, it is need to be enhanced on global basis by removing all the financial as well as social barriers. Global symposium is organized to bring together the midwives community to engage them in the midwifery education, strengthening association development, regulation, enhancing their skills and etc. Panel discussion is also organized on the theme of “Acceptability” of midwifery services to highlight the key issues and fulfill the challenges.

International Confederation of Midwives

The International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) is an organization, having around 100 members in the 100 countries, supporting and working for strengthening the midwives professional associations all around the world. It works with the midwives and midwifery associations to enhance and secure the women and child rights through the easy access to the midwifery care before, during and after the childbirth. It also works with the UN agencies and other partners as a global initiative for reducing the maternal and fetal mortality rates by expanding the midwifery care.

ICM aims to provide healthy environment for each and every childbearing woman by offering easy access of the midwife’s care for both the mother and her newborn baby. It helps in strengthening the midwifery all over the world by offering fully qualified and skilled midwives in order to offer high quality and evidence-based health services to the mother and baby.

International Midwives Day Theme

• The theme of 2019 is “Midwives: Defenders of Women’s Rights”.
• The theme of 2018 was “Midwives leading the way with quality care”.
• The theme of 2017 was “Midwives: Making a difference in the world”.
• The theme of 2016 was “Women and Newborns: The Heart of Midwifery”.
• The theme of 2015 was “Midwives: for a better tomorrow”.
• The theme of 2014 was “Midwives changing the world one family at a time”.
• The theme of 2013 was “The world needs midwives now more than ever!/Midwives Save Lives”.
• The theme of 2012 was “The World Needs Midwives Now More Than Ever”.
• The theme of 2011 was “The first 5 km of the long Walk to Durban in South”.
• The theme of 2010 was “The World Needs Midwives Now More Than Ever”.
• The theme of 2009 was “The World Needs Midwives More Than Ever”.
• The theme of 2008 was “Healthy Families – the Key to the Future”.
• The theme of 2007 was “Midwives reach out to women – wherever they live”
• The theme of 2006 was “The World Needs Midwives—Now More Than Ever”.
• The theme of 2005 was “The World Needs Midwives—Now More Than Ever”.
• The theme of 2004 was “Midwives: a voice for healthy families”.
• The theme of 2003 was “Leadership and key partnerships in midwifery actions achieve improved health for mothers and newborns”.
• The theme of 2002 was “The World Needs Midwives—Now More Than Ever”.
• The theme of 2001 was “The World Needs Midwives—Now More Than Ever”.
• The theme of 2000 was “The World Needs Midwives—Now More Than Ever”.
• The theme of 1991 was “Towards safe birth for all by the year 2000”.