Midwife Aotearoa New Zealand

BULLETIN

bulletin International Day of the Midwives 2022: 100 years of progress

• supplies and functional facilities (33% of

International Day of the Midwives (IDM)

The survey, led by White Ribbon Alliance in collaboration with ICM, followed on from the What Women Want campaign, launched in 2019, which advocated for improvement of quality maternal and reproductive healthcare for women and girls globally. Among the top five requests from women and girls in 114 countries was “increased, competent and better supported midwives and nurses”.

2022 was celebrated worldwide on May 5, marking a century since ICM’s forerunner the International Midwives Union (IMU) - was established in Belgium.

This year, IDM served as a platform for the release of a global report detailing the requests of over 56,000 health providers in 101 countries, in response to the open-ended question: “What do you want most in your role as a midwife?”

What Women Want: Midwives’ Voices, Midwives’ Demands reports the responses, with the top two requests being: • more and better supported personnel (33% of respondents), with the most often cited sub-demand being proper remuneration.

8 | AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND MIDWIFE

Rata midwives gain 30k+ signatures in bid to save St. George’s maternity In response to the proposed closure of St. George’s primary maternity service in Christchurch (see p.12 for background), LMC group practice Rata Midwives launched an online petition in April, gaining more than

respondents), which included access to

30,000 signatures in support of the service’s

basics such as clean water, equipment and

continuation.

medications for women under their care.

Midwives worldwide have felt the added pressures of the Covid-19 pandemic and although midwifery challenges are different for each continent, it is clear midwives are needed and wanted by women, and midwives everywhere feel undervalued and underrecognised.

St. George’s, a private hospital contracted by Canterbury DHB to provide maternity services, is the only central primary birthing unit available to wāhine and whānau in Ōtautahi, meaning its closure would limit birthing people’s options to Christchurch Women’s Hospital, or primary birth units situated more than 30 kms out of the city.

Rata midwife Hayley Gimblett explains the petition was needed to raise awareness about what the community could lose if the closure goes ahead. “If St. George’s maternity service closes, there will be even less choice for women in Christchurch. We need to have choices about where we birth. Primary birth options are an absolutely key part of a

The College hopes all midwives here in Aotearoa felt appreciated on May 5, 2022 and continues to advocate for increased

woman’s birth choices and in fact we need far

recognition from the government.

and MERAS on the publicity campaign, to

square

more primary birthing options, not fewer.”

The College collaborated with Rata Midwives