Plan to develop 3,000 midwives by 2015

A plan is underway to develop 3,000 midwives in the country by 2015, in line with Prime Minister (PM) Sheikh Hasina's announcement to attain millennium development goals 4 and 5 on child and mother survival, reports BSS. A consultation meeting of the stakeholders of the fields in the city Saturday said that the target could be achieved through a strategic plan that would provide guideline and pathways to achieve the target. According to a draft strategic plan, the midwives who are crucial for safe delivery could be developed either from unemployed nurses with a six-month additional training to their four-year diploma or provide three-year training on midwifery to female students having HSC with science background. In addition to it, the field level health and family welfare staff can also be trained for 12-18 months in midwifery so that they could work as 'auxiliary' midwives in Bangladesh, one of 53 countries in the world severely facing crisis of health workforce. Bangladesh has now around 200 trained stand-alone midwives and 30,000 nurses, who have also one year training on midwifery, against a net demand for 65,000 midwives. The critical shortage of delivery experts has been forcing rural populace to seek delivery service from generally uneducated traditional birth attendants (TBAs) or their improved version, skilled birth attendants (SBAs) or community based SBAs. More than 80 per cent pregnant women still get child delivery at homes at the hands of the so-called birth attendants and leading to high mortality of mothers and their newborns in the country. The country has, however, reduced the mortality substantially over years and is on the track to achieve MDG 4 and 5. "The PM's desire for 3000 midwives by 2015 can be achieved in next four years and Bangladesh can accelerate its endeavours to cut child and maternal mortality further," said Timothy Evans, international dean of James P Grant School of Public Health, in his strategic paper. He said the midwives would not only help attain MDGs but also ensure safe delivery across the country.