Global Community Should Invest In Midwives

Project Syndicate: Midwives Deliver Lives
Jakaya Kikwete, former president of Tanzania and member of the International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity, and Toyin Saraki, founder and president of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa

“…Worldwide, 350,000 more midwives are needed to bridge the gap between the health-care haves and have-nots. … Policies and funding to support midwife education, training, and regulation can produce up to a sixteenfold return on investment, because when midwives are involved in pregnancy and childbirth, mothers are less likely to require expensive emergency interventions such as caesarean sections. The fact that governments and civil society organizations have given midwives such short shrift is as surprising as it is disappointing. … To bring more attention to midwives’ unique role, the International Confederation of Midwives is gathering this week in Toronto, Canada, for its 31st Triennial Congress. … We cannot rest until we have addressed the millions of lives that are still lost each year in pregnancy, childbirth, and early life. That is why we are asking governments and donors around the world to give midwifery the attention that it deserves as a commonsense solution to a global health problem…” (6/19).

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