Midwives' Voices, Midwives' Realities
2016
This report from the World Health Organization (WHO) provides an insight into the realities of midwives globally. Midwives’ Voices, Midwives’ Realities focuses on the challenges faced by midwives on a daily basis, based on the response of nearly 2500 midwives across 93 countries. Evidence has proven the importance of midwives in reducing global maternal mortality, but little has been documented about the perspectives of midwifery personnel. The themes that emerge from the survey emphasize that midwives are deeply committed to providing high quality of care, but are very frustrated by certain realities that obstruct their efforts. A few of these frustrations include feeling a lack of voice in creating change; experiencing an unequal balance of power within the health systems they work; experiencing disrespect and subordination from the medical profession, as well as instances of gender discrimination, just to name a few. These experiences need to be addressed in order for midwives to provide quality care to their patients and to have a safe working environment throughout their professional careers.
Midwives' Voices, Midwives' Realities
Source:
Midwives’ Voices, Midwives’ Realities Report 2016. World Health Organization 2016. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/250376.