The 5th May is the date set aside globally to celebrate International Day of the Midwife, led by the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM). The theme this year is “One Million More Midwives”. Professor Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent OBE Chief Midwife, Kate Stringer Midwife Advisor, Stephanie Marriott Midwife Advisor, Dr Solomon Hailemeskel Midwife Advisor, Liselotte Kweekel Midwife Advisor, International Confederation of Midwives explain the background to the campaign and encourages us to get involved.
Are you asking for more midwives?
Each year on 5 May, the global community observes International Day of the Midwife, led by the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM), to recognise and celebrate the indispensable role midwives play in providing sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn and adolescent health (SRMNAH) services. While this day provides an important moment of recognition, it is also a strategic platform to elevate the profession, strengthen political commitment, and advance global understanding of midwifery as a cornerstone of high-quality, equitable health systems.
This year’s theme, “One Million More Midwives,” (1) is grounded in urgent global evidence. It reflects a shortfall of approximately 980,000 midwives across 181 countries (2), a deficit that translates directly into unmet need, preventable mortality, and weakened health systems. The consequences are profound: women and newborns are denied timely access to essential care, services become fragmented, and health systems are pushed beyond capacity. Evidence consistently demonstrates that when midwives are properly educated, regulated, and fully integrated into health systems, they can deliver up to 90% of essential SRMNAH services and avert a substantial proportion of maternal deaths, newborn deaths, and stillbirths, while also improving dignity, safety, and continuity of care (3,4).
Importantly, the challenge is not only about producing more midwives. A significant and often under-recognised issue is the systemic failure to effectively employ, deploy, and retain those already trained. In many contexts, midwives are educated, but not employed; employed but constrained from working to their full scope of practice; or leaving the profession due to burnout, inadequate remuneration, unsafe staffing levels, and limited professional recognition. These challenges are present across all income settings, including high-income countries, where workforce planning gaps, ageing workforces, and rising demand for care further exacerbate shortages. As a result, every national deficit contributes cumulatively to a global shortage, meaning that inequities in one setting reverberate across the global health system.
Within this context, the “One Million More Midwives” campaign calls for a comprehensive and coordinated response: expanding education capacity, strengthening regulation, ensuring sustainable employment, improving working conditions, and critically retaining the existing workforce. It emphasises that workforce growth alone is insufficient without parallel investment in systems that enable midwives to practise safely, autonomously, and to their full scope. The associated global petition seeks to mobilise one million signatures, creating a unified voice of midwives, partners, and the public to call for urgent political action and sustained investment in the profession.
There is also a clear role for individuals, professionals, and stakeholders to act now. Everyone is encouraged to sign the global petition, engage with and understand the midwifery workforce situation in their own country, and actively raise their voices to highlight gaps, inequalities, and opportunities for change. Awareness alone is not enough; collective action is needed to translate evidence into political will and investment. By speaking out, sharing evidence, and advocating within national systems, each person can contribute to building momentum for a stronger, fully supported midwifery workforce.
What happens after you sign the petition
The petition https://www.millionmore.org/, will remain open until the ICM Triennial Congress in Lisbon in June 2026 creating a powerful, sustained window for global engagement and action. From launch to close, ICM continues to seize every opportunity to build visibility, amplify voices, and drive momentum worldwide. This effort will culminate in a major global advocacy moment on International Day of the Midwife 2026, a unifying milestone that will spotlight the campaign’s urgent call to action.
Following the formal handover of petition signatures at Congress, the campaign will not end, it will evolve. Momentum will shift to the national level, where ICM will equip member associations with signature, data, and targeted advocacy tools to strengthen their efforts and hold governments accountable for meaningful action.
Ultimately, this campaign is about far more than workforce numbers. It is about ensuring universal access to respectful, high-quality care for women and newborns; strengthening health system resilience; and advancing equity at every level of care delivery. It recognises midwives not as an optional component of health systems, but as essential professionals whose presence determines whether women and newborns survive and thrive. Supporting this agenda is therefore not symbolic advocacy, it is a necessary and evidence-based commitment to saving lives, improving quality of care, and achieving global health goals.
References
- International Confederation of Midwives (ICM). One million more midwives: global petition launch [Internet]. The Hague: ICM; 2025 Oct 14 [cited 2026 Apr 28]. Available from: https://internationalmidwives.org/one-million-more-launch/
- Boyce MR, Nove A, Drandić D, White J, Dunkley-Bent J, af Ugglas A. A critical crisis persists: updated estimate of global midwife shortage requires urgent action. Women and Birth. 2026 Feb;39(1):102161.
- Renfrew MJ, McFadden A, Bastos MH, Campbell J, Channon AA, Cheung NF, et al. Midwifery and quality care: findings from a new evidence-informed framework for maternal and newborn care. Lancet. 2014;384(9948):1129–1145.
- UNFPA, World Health Organization, International Confederation of Midwives. State of the world’s midwifery 2021. New York: United Nations Population Fund; 2021. Available from: https://www.unfpa.org/publications/state-worlds-midwifery-2021
Professor Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent OBE Chief Midwife, Kate Stringer Midwife Advisor, Stephanie Marriott Midwife Advisor, Dr Solomon Hailemeskel Midwife Advisor, Liselotte Kweekel Midwife Advisor, International Confederation of Midwives
May 2026