Midwifery matters
FRANCES Day-Stirk, president of the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM), has charged local nurses and midwives to understand that midwifery matters has the potential to transform Jamaica.
Day-Stirk, who was speaking at a recent conference entitled Strategic Conversations: transforming midwifery to meet the 2030 agenda on January 9, said midwives, when educated, licensed, trained and regulated, can provide the full scope of midwifery practice as defined.
She added that based on documented research, the outcomes of good midwifery care include fewer pre-term births — a big issue for Jamaica — reduced intervention in labour, increased birth spacing, contraceptive use, increased breastfeeding and shorter hospital stays, which she said leads to the optimisation of normal births.
She said midwifery is the foundation of optimal health for mother, newborn and the family, and added that in order to tap into the full potential of its offering, there needs to be a review of the quality of care locally.
As part of her presentation, Day-Stirk made mention of another key document — the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s, and Adolescents’ Health (GS2).
The document developed by the Every Woman Every Child movement, with broad stakeholder engagement, aims to improve the health and well-being of women, children, and adolescents by 2030 and will support the relevant UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
The GS2 addresses the survival and health of women and children, as well as adolescent (health) issues such as early marriage, gender-based violence, female genital mutation, lack of access to education, adolescent-friendly services, environmental health challenges such as lack of water and sanitation, climate change, indoor air pollution, fragile states and humanitarian situations, natural disasters and forcibly displaced people.
She added that the strategy also focuses on three themes — survive, thrive, and transform — which in essence is to end preventable deaths, ensure health and well-being, and expand enabling environments by actions to eradicate extreme poverty; ensure access to primary and secondary education; eliminate all harmful practices, discrimination and violence against girls and women; ensure universal access to water, sanitation and hygiene; enhance scientific research, technological capacities and innovation; and ensure legal identity for all.
The public lecture, the brainchild of Cynthia Pitter, lecturer in the University of the West Indies School of Nursing and doctoral student at the Institute for Gender and Development Studies, was in keeping with the ICM’s mandate to advance the profession of midwifery globally.
— Kimberley Hibbert
