A new strategy can help increase the survival of mothers and newborns in South Asian countries, where midwifery is not an established profession.
Due to lack of midwifery, complications in both mothers and newborns are extremely common. In her thesis, University of Gothenburg's Malin Bogren, who has been commissioned by the UN to work in Nepal, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, presented a strategy on how the midwifery profession can be established in low-income countries and in this way, improve the health of mothers and newborns.
The most important recommendations for improving the midwife profession in the studied countries are, therefore, legislative development and a comprehensive approach to strengthening the formal educational preparation for both midwifery students and midwifery teachers, which then raises the profession's status, Bogren noted.
She noted that her thesis provides recommendations for different levels of decision makers, civil society, academia and donors. Hopefully, this information can help to establish midwifery as a profession in South Asia and thus improve and promote maternal and newborn health.
The study appears in DISSERTATIONS.
