MONTEGO BAY, St James — Nurse practitioners are bemoaning a chronic shortage of midwives available to satisfy the demand in the Jamaican public health sector.

In 2019, data from the Ministry of Health revealed that of the 1,000 required, only 372 were employed.

Addressing the Nurse Practitioners in Jamaica’s 68th Scientific Seminar on Wednesday, Jullian Jackson Scarlett, supervisory nurse practitioner for the western region, explained that currently there are only 461 trained midwives, less than half of the required 1,000 members of the profession.

Wednesday was the first day of the three-day conference, held at the Hilton Rose Hall under the theme: ‘Maternal and Child Health: Building Blocks for a Secure Future’.

“You have 461 trained midwives, that is single trained midwives because you have registered nurses who would have done midwifery but those are mostly found in the hospitals with a few in the health centres.

“As a direct entry midwife you would find those a lot in the primary care setting and some in the hospital setting. So there is currently a shortage in the society,” she added.

She underscored that the number of midwives are woefully short to service all the health centres.

In the health sector we would have health centres that are classified from one to five. We are looking at changing that now, but as it is the type one health centres are where you have basic maternal and child health services offered. And we would want to have midwives in all of these facilities. So if we have 300 and odd facilities in the island, you would want to have a midwife at every facility. So that would give you an idea if we only have 461 and of that number…remember only 261 are in primary health care. So there is the need for them,” she emphasised.

Jackson Scarlett underscored the important role of midwifery for the future of pregnant women and children.

“Midwifery is a very important area and so as a midwife you look at pregnant women and their children. So we look at pre-pregnancy, we look at them when they are pregnant and after delivery of the young child health. So in order to have a secure future we have to look at our women and our children who are the future. So it is very important that you have standard of care for those persons so that we can ensure that the future augurs well for our population,” remarked Jackson Scarlett, who is also chairman of the seminar planning committee for the Nurse Practitioners Conference.

She told the Jamaica Observer that the high cost of training is one of the challenges foreseen in stymieing the midwifery profession.

Government usually provides training for the profession to provide essential support to women, mothers and babies at the Cornwall School of Nursing. However, the institution officially closed earlier this year after 47 years of providing training for nurses and midwives.

“Any training in midwifery now must be done at the University of Technology at their School of Midwifery and that is costing an arm and a leg. So that in itself will be a deterrent for some persons who may want to join as a midwife,” Jackson Scarlett argued.

She also cited the need for the advertising of the profession to attract new recruits.

“Another thing we find is that it is not being advertised enough as an area for persons to want to go into. So some persons they just know about doctors and nurses, but midwives have been around for a long time. They are the ones that you will find at the primary care level interfacing with women and their babies, during pregnancy and after delivery,” she explained.

Despite wearing white uniform, similar to nurses, midwives in various settings locally may be identified by a burgundy badge. A burgundy belt signifies seniority, or a burgundy stripe around the cap.

Midwifery has suffered political and social setbacks globally. Nonetheless, it remains an autonomous profession in a number of countries.