Midwifery Day: Association seeks govt collaboration on emergency preparedness

The National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM) has called for pragmatic collaboration with the Federal Government to reduce maternal and child mortality in the country.
Mrs. Margaret Akinsola, the National Vice President 1 of the association, made the appeal on Monday in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in commemoration of the World Midwifery Day marked annually on May 5.
The theme for 2019 is “Midwives: Defender of women’s rights”.
Akinsola said the proposed synergy would effectively meet the healthcare needs of Nigerians, particular the vulnerable group.
She described midwives as essential in providing emergency care for maternal, newborn and child health services in situations where they are needed.
But the official noted that they are not adequately empowered to effectively play such role.
She further said that midwives were always ready to perform their duties in any emergency situations all over the world, geared toward saving lives, preventing or reducing the suffering of the masses.
Akinsola, however, decried non-inclusion of midwives in government on policies, programmes formation and implementation on emergency preparedness and management in the country.
She described the collaboration as a major contributor to the rate of maternal and child mortality in any disaster or emergency situation.
Akinsola urged the government to come in contact with the midwives to enable them prepare adequately in the event of disaster and wage in immediately to curb emergency with regard to health challenge that may befall on the citizens especially the vulnerable groups.

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She suggested the areas of collaboration to include training and retraining of NANNM members, employing them as part of the team in the event of any disaster, among others.
According to her, government should ensure it gives direct, easy and affordable access to healthcare of mothers in cases of emergencies.
“They do not need to go miles before they can access healthcare. Government should make health care accessible to them.
“We want governments to also come up with policies that result in disaster preparedness strategies.
“Such policies can attract the attention of development partners and other international organisations like the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) to come to the aid of government when there are such cases.
“The ICM years ago initiated the idea role of midwives in place of disaster preparedness and in recognition of the importance the organisation ensure rapid and effective response to the need of this people particularly women and children in such situations.
“They see such situation as violation of their rights and they do not always want such violations to continue,” she stressed.
On the theme “Midwives: Defender of women’s rights’’, Akinsola said that they stand in the gap in ensuring women know and realise their reproductive rights.

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She noted that women have right to choose how they would deliver, process of conception, delivering and opportunity available in child spacing.
According to her, as midwives they really stand in the gap with providers of these services, which is access to these basic needs at this particular time of their reproductive age.
“We stand in the gap; we liaise between them and government because they are ignorant of what exactly their rights are and how they can get such rights.
“Women also have rights to respectful maternity care and they must have access to delivery if they want, where they want, who they want to deliver them and confidentiality among others.
“And it is the responsibility of midwives to keep confidentiality of patients,” she said.
NAN reports that the international midwives day is celebrated annually to raise awareness about the contribution of midwives towards patients all over the world.
It was also established by the International Confederation of Midwives to honour the midwives for their contributions toward the health of their nations. (NAN)