By: Ilyasa Baa
A total of fifty midwives across the country will be awarded this week by the Sierra Leone Midwives’ Association (SLMA) for their outstanding contributions towards the health sector.
The awardees will be drawn from the reproductive health units, special baby care units and the wards. The criteria have already been set for those who are going to grab these awards. The issuing of these meritorious awards will climax this year’s celebration of the International Midwives’ Day which is globally observed this month and in Sierra Leone it will fall on Thursday May 5th with the theme: One Hundred Years in Progress.
According to the Vice President, SLMA, Edwina F. Conteh, there will be four days celebration starting on the 5th in Bo city. “As part of the celebration, we are going to visit three schools to explain to the pupils about reproductive health,” she informed this medium. She added that membership into the association is open to those interested in the field,” that is why we are going to the schools to catch them young,” she emphasized.
She noted that there are about one thousand five hundred registered midwives in the country pointing out that those that have reached retirement age will be replaced by the young ones who have the energy and inclination to boost the sector as the World Health Organization (WHO) is supporting direct entry of medical practitioners into the midwifery sector. She said they have spread the olive branches to TBAs in hard to reach communities where there is little or no access to health centers training them to complement the effort of conventional health practitioners.
The SLMA, since its inception, has been working tirelessly to see a country where all women receive good and respectful care around pregnancy and birth so that they won’t just be healthy, but also look back upon the experience with happiness and pride. The association believes that Pregnancy and birth should be a high point in the lives of all mothers in the country.
In the Republic of Sierra Leone, since 1992, International Midwives’ Day has been held on May 5th.
This day is observed to honour midwives’ work and promote awareness about their importance in providing crucial care to mothers and their new-borns.
In addition, it is a chance for us to recognize their efforts towards making the world a better place.
The concept for a day to commemorate and acknowledge midwives arose from a conference held by the International Confederation of Midwives in the Netherlands in 1987. It was commemorated in Iran and New Zealand, among other countries, in 2014.
According to the most recent edition of the State of the World’s Midwifery report, increasing the number of midwives and improving the quality of care they give can save a projected 4.3 million lives.
