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International day of the midwife 2023 celebrations

By Dr Jenny Hall

May 5th is the International day of the midwife. In this article Jenny Hall explains the purpose of the day and shares some of the events that took place to celebrate.

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International day of the midwife 2023 celebrations

Last week on May 5th was the annual International Day of the Midwife (IDM2023). The day has been led by the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) since 1992 to raise the profile of the work and need for midwives across the globe. The theme for this year was “Together again: From evidence to reality”, pointing to the fact there has been no opportunity to meet face-to-face globally at the Triennial conference, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, for five years, and to show how midwives are using evidence to transform practice across the world. The ICM conference will be held in Bali in June 11-14. Members of the Maternity and Midwifery Forum and MATFLIX will be at the conference, which will also mark the completion of the term as President of Frank Cadée and the start of Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent, current Chief Midwife Officer of England, as the first Chief Midwife for the ICM. Jacqueline has been a regular contributor to the Maternity and Midwifery forum and last week for IDM2023 she gave a talk for the Midwifery Hour.  If you missed it, you can access here:

In addition, last week we shared an article by Anna Kent on her experience as a midwife working in Humanitarian aid.  This week and next we are sharing the reflection from Maryla Cross of her experience in Guatemala. It is always good to step back and realise that midwifery is not just going on in the NHS and there are midwives in practice in different situations to ours all over the world.  There were many events that took place celebrating the IDM last week, both locally and virtually.  Some examples are shared below:

  1. The Virtual International Day of the midwife (ViDM), 24 hour online conference, took place for the 15th (https://vidm.org/ ). It included attendees from 41 countries and was introduced by Sarah Stewart, who had started this event in her kitchen, 15 years ago.
  2. Fatima College Ajman Campus, Abu Dhabi, in collaboration with RAK Medical and Health University and the Emirates Nursing Association, held an event with keynote speakers Khadija Al Sulaiman and Nikki Oliver. They are pictured here alongside midwives Dr Georgina Sosa and Dr Maeve O’Connell, who lead on developing the new midwifery programme.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Liverpool John Moores University held a student event to celebrate IDM. The images below include speakers Professor Mary Steen from Northumbria University, Jacqueline Williams from the NMC and Judith Stenner, a spectacular placenta cake! Thank Michelle Beacock, Programme leader, for the photos.

  1. The ICM held a virtual party, celebrating from different parts of the world. Images here include from Uganda, Bangladesh and Portugal. If you look carefully in the Portugal picture you can see Sheena Byrom who was speaking at a study day they were holding there in Lisbon!

5. A Wonderful IDM at the North  Middlesex RCM  Branch, the event included a study day, with fabulous speakers, then awards for best student, best midwife, best preceptor, best paediatrician, obstetrician and medical student. Followed by a cream tea and celebration cake. Then a promenade event to give midwives and students midwives goodie bags to celebrate; pens, lanyards and a few packs of sunflowers. A fantastic celebration!

We hope you all celebrated and felt celebrated as midwives.

 

May 2023