Press Conference on State of the World’s Midwifery 2021 Preview Language: English 05-May-2021 00:11:58 WHO’s Chief Nursing Officer, Elizabeth Iro, and the Chief Executive of the International Confederation of Midwives Dr. Sally Pairman brief the press on the State of the World’s Midwifery 2021, jointly released by WHO, the UN Population Fund and International Confederation of Midwives.
Available Language: English
Call for more midwives as millions die in childbirth
In a joint report compiled with medics, the U.N. said urgent investment was needed to plug a global shortfall of some 900,000 midwives, with the added benefit of boosting jobs for women.
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Sonia Elks / Reuters | 12:00 am, May 6, 2021 ×
Nurses attach a ventilator to a newborn baby in the nursery at the Juba Teaching Hospital in Juba April 3, 2013. REUTERS/Andreea Campeanu
LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Midwives are routinely overlooked and ignored despite saving millions of lives a year, the United Nations said on Wednesday, urging the world to hire more women and safeguard new life.
Source: UN
A United Nations report published Wednesday said that the world is currently facing a shortage of 900,000 midwives, and called on governments to make this profession a priority.
This shortage could lead to the death of millions of women and newborns, according to the document jointly prepared by the United Nations Agency for Sexual and Reproductive Health, the World Health Organization and the International Confederation of Midwives. The Covid-19 crisis has exacerbated the problem with the decline in health services for women and newborns, the interruption of midwifery services and the recruitment of midwives in other health services, the United Nations added in a press release regarding the report, which deals with 194 countries.
05/04/2021 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 05/04/2021 18:10
New report sounds the alarm on global shortage of 900,000 midwives
Fully investing in midwives by 2035 would avert roughly two-thirds of maternal, newborn deaths and stillbirths, saving 4.3 million lives per year.
UNITED NATIONS, New York, 5 May 2021 Millions of lives of women and newborns are lost, and millions more experience ill health or injury, because the needs of pregnant women and skills of midwives are not recognized or prioritized.
The world is currently facing a shortage of 900,000 midwives, which represents a third of the required global midwifery workforce. The COVID-19 crisis has only exacerbated these problems, with the health needs of women and newborns being overshadowed, midwifery services being disrupted and midwives being deployed to other health services.
Global shortage of 900,000 midwives threatens women s lives and health, new report shows - World reliefweb.int - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from reliefweb.int Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.