Although the maternal mortality rate has decreased in the country, 156 mothers die while giving birth to every 100,000 children. More than 4,000 mothers die every year due to pregnancy and childbirth complications. Although efforts have been made to bring it down to 70 in the Sustainable Development Goals, Bangladesh is still far from achieving it. Moreover, 78 percent of normal deliveries of expectant mothers in the country are in the hands of midwives.
According to the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM), climate change is the biggest health challenge of our time. As the days go by, the whole world including Bangladesh is facing heat waves, floods and natural disasters due to the effect of global warming. Which is significantly affecting the health of women and children.
In such a situation, ‘Midwives, indispensable manpower in climate crisis’ is being celebrated in Bangladesh on Sunday like all over the world as ‘International Midwife Day-2024’.
Medical practitioners say that a midwife helps mothers with pregnancy, labor and early labor counseling and newborn care. Advises on maternal health and child care. Midwives are personally responsible for the health of mother and child. All in all, midwives play a major role in normal childbirth. Therefore, it is important to invest in midwives, both public and private, to recruit the required number of midwives in health centers and to give them full scope of practice. This will strengthen maternal and child health care systems and help achieve universal health coverage.
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Asma Khatun, President of Bangladesh Midwifery Society, said that in 2020, there were 163 maternal deaths per lakh during childbirth in the country. But the national target was to bring down the death rate to 121 per lakh. Thus bringing it down to 85 per lakh by 2025. This rate should be brought down to 70 people by 2030 to achieve the sustainable target.
Obstetrical and Gynecological Society of Bangladesh (OGSB) doctors said that although Bangladesh has made progress in improving maternal health, there is still a lot of work to be done. Because the number of midwives in health care institutions is less than required. Not all hospitals and community clinics have a suitable working environment. Their work is not recognized. Many people now think of midwives as nurses. Healthcare professionals also know very little about the role of midwives.
Bangladesh Midwifery Society (BMS) officials claim that the number of midwives registered by the Nursing and Midwifery Council in the country is about 8 thousand. About 2,557 midwives are working in Zilla Sadar Hospital, Upazila Health Complex and Union Sub-Centre, though there are 3,000 midwife posts. As the number of midwives is insufficient compared to the number of service takers, service delivery is disrupted. Rapid recruitment of midwives is essential to achieve sustainable targets. Last year, only 20 of the four colleges offered a total of 80 seats to midwives for BSc-in-Midwifery. This number should be increased.
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Director of Nursing and Midwifery Department (Administration) Md. Nasir Uddin said, ‘We have a little more than 2500 midwives. This number is very insufficient in proportion to the population. An application was made to create 5000 posts to meet the shortfall. Due to various complications, 401 people were approved. However, 3,000 nurses have already been recruited. Another 5 thousand posts have been created. The recruitment process will be completed by next year. Then the crisis will subside.
AAM/SNR/MS
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