Marking the 2020 International Women’s Day celebration, the Wellbeing Foundation (WBF) called for collaborations between NGOs and policymakers to promote midwives as the heart of health solutions. WBF is a non-governmental organisation that is committed to educating women on their health and training midwives and community health workers in emergency obstetrics and newborn care.

Speaking at an event to mark the day, the Vice President of the foundation, Dr. Alero Roberts, said, ‘We know that a midwife trained to the global standard has the essential skills to prevent 83% of all maternal deaths, stillbirths and new-born deaths. And, a 25% increase in midwives could reduce maternal mortality by 50%. For that reason, much of our work centres on increasing the skills training for midwives and advocating for the increased coverage of midwives across the world. It is not acceptable that in societies like Nigeria, only the wealthy, metropolitan women are educated enough to understand the necessity of respectful maternity care. The experience of bringing life into the world need not be traumatic. It need not be dangerous. It should be dignified and accessible’.

Dr. Roberts noted, ‘[T]oday, not a single country can claim to have achieved gender equality. Multiple obstacles remain unchanged in law and in culture. As a result, women remain undervalued, they continue to work more, earn less, have fewer choices and experience multiple forms of violence at home and in public spaces’. She added that the WBF is a global partner to the UN Secretary General’s ‘Every Women, Every Child’ initiative, which focuses on SDG 3 (wellbeing for all) and 5 (gender equality), putting women and children at the core of everything WBF does. She also stated that WBF is driving positive change in the realms of maternal health, women’s rights and girls’ education through a multi-layered strategy of research, advocacy, policy development, and educational programming.

Source: The Leadership

Photo source: Afromusing