May 5 was the International Day of the Midwife, an opportunity for the global community to come together to recognize the incredible impact midwives have on maternal and newborn health and decreasing mortality. Want to know more about what global leaders are doing to strengthen midwifery?

On March 23, global leaders in midwifery and maternal, newborn, and child health gathered in Washington, DC, at the Wilson Center for “Call the Midwife: A Conversation About the Rising Global Midwifery Movement.” This symposium hosted four panels to discuss current data, country investments, important global initiatives, and public private partnerships and innovation in midwifery. Each of the panels was presented in the context of exciting new strides in maternal health with the forthcoming Sustainable Development Goals, an updated strategy for the United Nations’ Every Woman, Every Child initiative, and the World Bank’s Global Financing Facility that supports it.

While each speaker’s background and focus varied, the themes of the symposium were consistent:

• Improve management and leaderships skills of midwives
• Improve pre-service and in-service education
• Innovate to keep midwives in rural areas
• Fill the need for well-trained midwifery faculty
• Integrate maternal and newborn healthcare
• Provide respectful maternity care (RMC)
• Build capacity

Continue reading on the Maternal Health Task Force blog.