Every day, mothers worldwide bring new life into the world with someone vital by their side: a midwife. And in places where maternal healthcare can be hard to come by, a community midwife helps ensure that every mother’s birth experience is safe and joyous.
Around the world, MADRE helps sustain midwives’ work through crucial knowledge exchanges — spaces where midwives come together to compare their experiences, share skills and advance their shared demands. Here are some examples!
In Colombia, our partners at Taller de Vida organized a training for midwives with MADRE’s support. In their communities, midwives are often the only trained provider to assist with childbirth, as hospitals are too far away for mothers to reach. At this workshop, midwives exchanged experiences and skills, and shared their goals for the future. Check out this video made by Taller de Vida to learn more!
We also support our partners at Midwives for Peace, a collective of Israeli and Palestinian midwives, enabling them to gather regularly and exchange expertise, despite the barriers that divide them. Not only does this help them to provide the best care they can, they show what cooperation and coexistence looks like.
And in Nicaragua, we support midwives through our partner Wangki Tangni. In their rural community, it can take a woman hours to walk to the hospital. Midwives ensure that women receive expert care close to home. With our support, midwives come together at an annual forum to exchange knowledge and skills.
Happy International Day of Midwives! We are so grateful for all of the midwives out there helping women have safe, healthy and joyful births.
