The State of the World’s Midwifery 2021 report: findings to drive global policy and practice

28 November, 2021

Citation, abstract and conclusion of a Commentary, and a comment from me below.

https://human-resources-health.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12960...

The report itself is available here: https://www.unfpa.org/publications/sowmy-2021

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CITATION: The State of the World’s Midwifery 2021 report: findings to drive global policy and practice

Andrea Nove, Petra ten Hoope-Bender, Martin Boyce, Sarah Bar-Zeev, Luc de Bernis, Geeta Lal, Zoë Matthews, Million Mekuria & Caroline S. E. Homer

Human Resources for Health volume 19, Article number: 146 (2021)

ABSTRACT

The third global State of the World’s Midwifery report (SoWMy 2021) provides an updated evidence base on the sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn and adolescent health (SRMNAH) workforce. For the first time, SoWMy includes high-income countries (HICs) as well as low- and middle-income countries... SoWMy 2021 estimates a global shortage of 900,000 midwives, which is particularly acute in low-income countries (LICs) and in Africa... Key regional variations include: major midwife shortages in Africa and South-East Asia but more promising signs of growth in South-East Asia than in Africa...

CONCLUSION

Since the first SoWMy report in 2011, there has been much progress in midwifery, including greater recognition of the importance of quality of care, widespread accreditation systems for health worker education institutions, and greater recognition of midwifery as a distinct profession. On the other hand, many of the issues highlighted in the two previous SoWMy reports remain of concern, such as workforce shortages, an inadequate working environment, low-quality education and training, and limitations in health workforce data.

Governments and relevant stakeholders are urged to use SoWMy 2021 to inform their efforts to build back better and fairer from the COVID-19 pandemic, forging stronger primary health-care systems as a pathway to UHC and fostering a more equitable world. It is hoped that the pandemic will be a catalyst for change given the heightened profile of health workers. SoWMy 2021 can help make this happen.

SE£LECTED ERXTRACTS

For midwives to achieve their potential, greater investment is needed in four key areas: education and training; health workforce planning, management and regulation and the work environment; leadership and governance; and service delivery

Governments and relevant stakeholders are urged to use SoWMy 2021 to inform their efforts to build back better and fairer from the pandemic, forging stronger primary health-care systems as a pathway to UHC and fostering a more equitable world for all.

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COMMENT (NPW): HIFA stands ready to help address the information and learning needs of midwives in LMICs. Thanks to our links with the International Confederation of Midwives, Royal College of Midwives, and Commonwealth Nurses and Midwives Federation (all of whom are HIFA supporting organisations), we have a substantial number of midwives among our members and we would like to welcome many more.

Neil Pakenham-Walsh, HIFA Coordinator, neil@hifa.org www.hifa.org