Most people would agree that children are a gift from above. No wonder people go to extraordinary lengths to have them. If you are from the Shona culture then perhaps you have even heard the phrase “vana vanosimbisa imba.” Whether or not we agree with that is a story for another day. A more pressing issue has arisen. Zimbabwe has reported a serious shortage in midwives.
The world celebrated International Midwives Day on the 6th of May and on this day the statistics on Zimbabwe’s midwives were released. A severe shortage of midwives in Zimbabwe was reported, leaving the nation in a search of these skills abroad.
However, Zimbabwe is not the only country to be facing this problem as a report revealed that globally there is a shortage of approximately 900 000 midwives.
The 2021 State of World’s Midwifery report by UNFPA (the UN sexual and reproductive health agency), WHO (World Health Organization attributed the some of the increase in preventable deaths toll to this shortage.
Speaking in regards to this shortage and encourage world to invest in midwives, UNFPA Executive Director, Dr Natalia Kanem shared the following sentiments:
“A capable, well-trained midwife can have an enormous impact on childbearing women and their families – an impact often passed on from one generation to the next. At UNFPA, we have spent more than a decade strengthening education, enhancing working
conditions and supporting leadership roles for the midwifery profession. We have seen that these efforts work, but they need greater investment”
Emmanuel Mhlangu, President of Zimbabwe Confederation of Midwives commented particular with regards to Zimbabwe’s situation saying,
“The global need for nurses has depleted our staff. These experts for normal deliveries are sadly migrating to other countries where they will only be operating as general nurses. This is because here, we do not recognise their role and out of frustration, many answered to global calls for nursing vacancies and now we have a shortage.”
He called upon government and local authorities to invest in the training of more midwives to combat this shortage.
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