The unique work of midwives represents skilled, knowledgeable and compassionate care for women’s reproductive health throughout their adult life. That includes family planning, childbearing women, newborn infants and families throughout pregnancy, birth, postpartum and the early weeks of a child’s life.
Very few fields in medicine have so much happiness as that of a dignified, respectful and safe birth. And yet, in many humanitarian and fragile settings women give birth in unsafe conditions.
In Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, Rohingya women and girls rely on the vital role of midwifery to access quality of care and life-saving reproductive health supplies. On World Humanitarian Day, we celebrate Midwifes as Real Life Heroes of the everyday life - in its full meaning - in the Rohingya refugee camps. These are their voices.
From midwife to midwife, midwives Diana and Abeda sharing their experiences - WHO/ Tatiana Almeida
Diana Garde, WHO SRHR Technical Officer
“Nurses and midwives all over the world understand one another, as only we know the intimate connections that are made with patients and the many experiences we share. We often arrive early and stay late to see that a patient gets the care that they need, we skip meals, we miss putting our own children to bed, we hold the hand of a scared patient or family member and provide kind words to ease fear of the unknown. We are blessed to witness new and renewed life, and burdened by unexpected death”, explains Diana - a trained nurse and midwife.
“The pain and suffering of the patients is carried by the provider long after the shift is finished”, Diana Garde"
WHO SRH Technical Officer, Diana Garde, talking with a midwife at the entrance of the delivery room, where she is attending to a labour - WHO/ Tatiana Almeida
Diana always dreamed of working as a humanitarian. As a newly graduated nurse she went to Tanzania to volunteer at a rural health clinic, but having a small child at that time, she was unable to stay for long. Instead, she worked for many years as a nurse and midwife in the USA while raising her child. But on the day her son went to college, she resumed her passion to become a humanitarian.
For a year, she has been sharing her technical expertise at WHO to meet the immediate sexual and reproductive health (SRH) needs of extremely vulnerable women, adolescents and girls in Cox’s Bazar acute and protracted humanitarian crisis.
“While I may not be providing bedside clinical care in Cox’s Bazar, I feel like my role is to stand beside those who are caring for patients. By maintaining quality and respectful care, WHO is ensuring that the staff are safer and that there are better outcomes for the patients. Just as importantly, is for nurses and midwives to feel supported and valued”, says Diana.
“Those working in the field and at the bedside of patients are the real heroes and they deserve to be recognized”, Diana Garde.
Many of the nurses and midwives work in difficult conditions, where access to electricity and running water is limited and where in general there are more needs than available resources. By joining the celebrations of 2020 as the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife, WHO is advocating for increased investments in the nursing and midwifery workforce.
Abeda Sultana, Midwife at Food for Hungry Health Facility, Teknaf
“I see myself as a sister to all my patients. I help them during pregnancy, childbirth and in those critical early days and months after the baby is born. I have been working at this health facility since almost two years now, and I try to give my maximum contribution to human health”, says Abeda.
A midwife working at FH-MTI (Food for the Hungry and Medical Teams International) health facility in Teknaf, Cox’s Bazar, Abeda Sultana attended to 120 labours in the past 2 years - WHO/ Tatiana Almeida
“Last night I had to attend to an emergency late at night to help a mother who tried to have a home delivery without the help of a midwife or a nurse. It was a difficult case but we were able to stabilize her and save both mother and child”, tells Abeda.
“As a midwife, I also play an important role in providing counselling, education and access to contraception and other reproductive health services to women and girls.”
Since January 2018, WHO has provided emergency reproductive health kits and other medical supplies, as well as capacity building to nurses, midwives and medical officers - the real life and yet unsung - heroes of Cox’s Bazar. This has been made possible thanks to the Government of the Netherlands - a dedicated donor to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) around the world.
On World Humanitarian Day, we come together to celebrate midwives, and the commitment of the midwifery profession globally to saving lives and upholding the rights of women to a safe and positive birth.