By 
Zimbabwe Confederation of Midwives (ZCM) has said the global need for nurses has depleted the midwives in the country as many are fleeing for greener pastures in other countries.
Speaking as the world celebrates International Day of Midwives (ICM)on the 5th of May, ZCN president Emmanuel Mahlangu said midwives were not being recognised in the country for their critical role in delivering babies safely and keeping a lid on maternal deaths.
“The global need for nurses has depleted our staff. These experts for normal deliveries are sadly migrating to other countries where they will only be operating as general nurses. This is because here, we do not recognise their role and out of frustration, many answered to global calls for nursing vacancies and now we have a shortage,” he said.
Mahlangu further added that government should invest in midwives through intensified training and adequately retaining them as the country is still with unacceptably high maternal mortality rate.
“We call on the government, local authorities and corporate sector to invest in midwives through intensified training and adequately retaining them,” he said.
The 2021 the State of World’s Midwifery report by United Nations Population Fund, (UNFPA), the UN sexual and reproductive health agency, World Health Organisation (WHO), ICM and partners noted the acute shortage of midwives as exerting a terrible global toll in the form of preventable deaths.
An analysis conducted for this report, published in the Lancet journal last December, showed that fully resourcing midwife-delivered care by 2035 could avert 67% of maternal deaths, 64% of new-born deaths and 65% of stillbirths.
It could save an estimated 4,3 million lives per year.
Commenting on the state of the world report, executive director for UNFPA Natalia Kanem said: “The State of the World’s Midwifery report sounds the alarm that currently the world urgently needs 1,1 million more essential health workers to deliver sexual, reproductive, maternal, new-born and adolescent healthcare, and 80% of these missing essential health workers are midwives.”
[14:26, 07/05/2021] +263 77 349 7256: Stop conducting extra lessons, teachers urged.
Comments