Professor Rita Borg Xuereb, represented the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) at the ISCH COST Action 1405 final action Conference, 17-18 September Lisbon, Portugal.
This Conference brought to a closure two COST actions, which spanned over eight years and mainly focused on research, policy and practice in the context of childbirth. The action consisted of a network of scientist, midwives, obstetricians, academics, service users and policy makers from 33 countries working together on this topic. The event, held over two days, was a manifesto of all the work undertaken over the past four years. It included five plenary sessions and parallel oral and poster peer-reviewed presentations with over 400 participants.
During plenary session 5, entitled ‘The future of right maternity care: a view from stakeholders’, Professor Borg Xuereb’s speech focused on the work that the International Confederation of Midwives is doing on a global perspective in support of midwives, the midwives associations, women, children and families. She elicited examples from the number of projects, which included the 50,000 Happy Birthday Project with the support of ICM’s partners amongst others.
The project was recently launched in Rwanda and Ethiopia, with the aim to train up to 20,000 midwives and health care providers in Helping Mothers Survive (Jhpiego) and Helping Babies Breathe (Latter-day Saint Charities). The two programmes address the major causes of morbidity and mortality, postpartum haemorrhage, pre-eclampsia and eclampsia, birth asphyxia, prematurity and newborn sepsis. ICM collaborates with several partners to ensure that in the future all women will have access to a competent midwife through the journey of pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period.
Professor Diogo Ayres-de-Campos- FIGO Committee for Safe Motherhood and Newborn Health & European Association of Perinatal Medicine and Ms Sara do Vale, from the European Network of Childbirth Associations & Association for the Rights of Women in Pregnancy and Childbirth gave a presentation about the stakeholders’ views on the future of right maternity care during this plenary session. This was followed by a discussion from the floor.
