The International Day of the Midwife 2007

The International Day of the Midwife 2007
With the triennial theme of ‘Keeping birth normal’ and the year’s focus of
‘Reaching out to women’, midwives celebrated in their own way across the world
This year’s round-up includes extracts
from items published in the local or
national press, as well as reports from
member associations. At ICM Head
Office we were delighted to see more
articles of both sorts than ever before.
The International Day is more widely
recognised every year and is becoming
a major event in the process of raising
the midwifery profile in the global
arena.
Afghanistan
Over 150 members of the three-year-old
Afghan Midwives Association (AMA)
came together to mark the day. Dr Saed
M Amin Fatemi, Minister of Public
Health in the Afghan government,
opened the celebrations at the Insaf
Hotel in the capital city Kabul and,
during his speech, pledged the support
of the Ministry to the AMA to assist in
meeting its goals.
At the annual congress, held
immediately before the IDM, midwives
were presented with certificates and
gifts for their individual achievements,
and there were also prizes for designing
a midwifery poster. One winning poster,
shown below, designed and crafted by
midwives from Nangarhar province,
symbolises the midwives as doves who
bring health and peace to the families of
Afghanistan, while the spreading
branches of the trees show the different
places and ways in which midwives
carry out their work.
Australia
The
Advertiser
in Bendigo,
Victoria,
reported on
May 5 that:
‘Midwives
at Bendigo
Health and
from
around the
world are
taking part in International Midwives
Day celebrations today. The day
honours and promotes midwifery and
the many and varied aspects of the role.
Among the celebrations at Bendigo
Health, the staff farewelled midwife
Annette Ramage, who retired after 32
years of service. '‘I've had so many
highlights in my career," she said. ‘‘ …
meeting the [women], seeing through
their pregnancies and then seeing them
return again for their second and third
babies. The other is I have worked with
a wonderful bunch of colleagues." To
celebrate International Midwives Day
Ms Ramage presented a quilt to Julie
Dillon and baby Riley (photo above).
Austria
Austrian midwives braved wet spring
weather to join many other European
midwives in releasing balloons to
publicise the idea of keeping birth
normal.
The Austrian balloons were printed
with the slogan ‘Kinder kommen durch
Frauenkraft’ – ‘Children are born
through woman-power!’
Burundi
Une année vient de s’écouler depuis
que les femmes burundaises accouchent
gratuitement dans les structures
sanitaire publiques. Cet anniversaire et
la journée internationale de la sage
femme ont été célébrés au Burundi le 05
mai 2007 dans toutes les provinces du
39
pays dans le but de palper les réalités
du terrain dans le milieu reculé. Lors
des manifestations, les sages-femmes
ont été informés sur l’état d’avancement
du dossier d’agrément de l’association
Burundaise de sages-femmes
« ABUSAFE » en sigle.
Dans la province de Rutana, les
sages-femmes et autres professionnels
de la santé se sont retrouvés à la
maternité de Gihofi pour évaluer
ensemble les résultats de la maternité
gratuite dans cette province et procéder
au lancement du Groupe d’Assistance
pour la Promotion de la Maternite sans
Risques (voir le photo), une association
qui regroupe les sages-femmes,
infirmières, auxiliaires de santé,
accoucheuse traditionnelles et autres
animateurs de santé. L’objectif de cette
association est de sensibiliser les
femmes à l’age de procréer sur
l’importance de la consultation
prénatale, le dépistage volontaire du
VIH/Sida pendant la grossesse et les
autres avantages d’accoucher sous
assistance qualifiée. Elle va aussi
encadrer toutes femmes victimes des
grossesses issues de la violence sexuelle
sur toutes ces formes. Une fois agréer,
l’association Burundaise des sagesfemmes compte mettre sur pieds à
travers ce groupe, une équipe mobile
qui sera prête à intervenir à tout
moment devant une urgence
obstétricale qui pourra survenir dans
les centres de santé les plus reculés.
Les manifestations ont été clôturées
par la remise des moustiquaires aux
femmes qui ont accouchés le 1–5 mai
2007 à
l’hôpital
de Gihofi.
➧
Une femme
qui a
accouché à
Gihofi
International Midwifery Volume 20 – Number 3 September 2007