Midwives' role in reducing maternal, infant mortality rates underlined

An effective and enhanced role of midwives can help reduce the maternal and infant mortality rates in the country because they provide more one-on-one attention in childbirth cases. This was stated by State Minister for Health Chaudhry Mohammad Afzal Suddhu while inaugurating the two-day "midwifes conference" at the College of Nursing of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) on Monday.
Pims Executive Director Dr Abdul Majid Rajput; President of Midwifery Association of Pakistan Mrs Imtiaz Kamal; chief of Paiman Dr Nabeela Ali; Dr Zafarullah Gill of TACMIL health project and head of Pims Gynae Department Professor Ghazala Mehmood were also present on the occasion.
The state minister said that nurses and midwives occupied a very special place in achieving the country's national health target. "Midwives are the torch-bearers in providing health services and are the backbone of healthcare system," he remarked.
"We appreciate the devotion and commitment of these professionals. We all know that our nurses and midwives have always risen up to the expectations of the nation in the hours of need," he added. "Pakistan is a developing country, which has a high ratio of maternal mortality rate (MMR) and infant mortality rate (IMR)," he said.
Suddhu further said that there were many reasons for these high rates as 75 percent deliveries were conducted by untrained birth attendants, whereas in developed countries 80 percent of deliveries were performed by midwives, hence their MMR and IMR was unnoticeable.
Globally many countries like Sweden had reduced their maternal mortality rate with the active support of trained midwives, he said, and added the government had started training new cadre of community midwifery (CM) in the 12 districts of the country along-with other midwifery trainings to provide midwifery services to people and by this way, each CM would serve a population of 5,000 in catchment areas.
He said that midwifery was now getting recognition, and added it looked that it had started to get its due status. "The theme of day is very rightly stated and that I agreed with it that midwives can save lives. I must appreciate the role of Pakistan Nursing Council being the regulatory body and its inputs for the preparation of standardised curriculum, training package, selection criteria and code of uniform examination system", he said.
He said that a proper co-ordination existed between the Ministry of Health and Child Health Programme, provincial health departments and PNC were working jointly for the uplift of midwifery services in Pakistan.
International and national agencies like UNICEF, UNFPA, PAIMAN, USAID and Midwifery Association of Pakistan were active partners in training of midwives in the country and initiation of midwifery education was a step forward to overcome the gaps, he said, adding there was a dire need to make co-ordinated effort for the well planned activities relating to the enhancement of midwifery and referral services in the country.
He said the present government was committed to reform the nursing and midwifery sector in its various facets and it had been placed among the priority areas. "I hope that the present conference will bring a noticeable improvement in the midwifery services in the country", he maintained.
Speaking on the occasion, the Pims Executive Director said the midwives were the backbone of health and without their training, "we cannot reduce the infant and maternal mortality rates." He appreciated the efforts made by the Health Ministry and other organisations in reducing the infant and maternal mortality rates. The conference will be concluded on Tuesday.