Gulu, (UG):- 05th May is when we celebrate midwives worldwide and annually for their unwavering commitment to saving lives and ensuring the good health and well-being of women and newborn babies. In Uganda, the 2024 celebrations took place in Gulu City, Northern Uganda, organized by the Ministry of Health Uganda and the National Midwives’ Association of Uganda (NMAU) with support from UNFPA, Seed Global Health Uganda, to mention but a few.
Prior to the D-day, we started off with a 2-day midwifery symposium which was held at Acholi Inn Gulu city. Interestingly, as a Midwife and Women’s Health specialist, I was honoured to be the MC for the 2-day symposium, a role that I humbly accepted, and one that I am passionate about with the support of an MC from Gulu Regional Referral Hospital (GRRH).
Day 01(03rd May 2024) started off with remarks from the Principal Assistant Nursing Officer and Director GRRH who welcomed and appreciated the participants for turning up in large numbers to attend the symposium. This was followed by remarks from the SRHR Coordinator-UNFPA who was not only excited to see her fellow midwives but was astonished to see a huge number of participants in attendance of the symposium.
Our keynote speaker for the symposium was Dr Eva Wanyenze, a Midwife and Women’s Health Specialist, lecturer and young researcher working with Mbarara University of Science and Technology. Based on this year’s theme which states “Midwives: A vital climate solution”, Dr Eva highlighted that “Midwives, with their unique blend of courage and indispensability, play a crucial role in the face of climate change” She added “They provide culturally sensitive health care, serve as leaders in their communities, and act as emergency responders in times of crisis” Dr Eva also emphasized the need for midwives to embrace research.
An interesting panel session followed tackling issues of Midwifery education, the scope of Midwifery practice and the history and trends of Midwifery. Panelists included the Ministry of Education, Uganda Nurses and Midwives Council, President NMAU and Head of ADHO’s-MCH/N.
Parallel sessions on day 01 included; Soft Skills in Midwifery, Why Research is important in Midwifery, productive use of social media in midwifery and career development in midwifery. These were followed by over 50 abstracts running in various break-out rooms under the following themes: Midwifery Led Model of Care, Reproductive Health Services, community-based care and Maternal child health nutrition. I was impressed to see fellow midwives engage in research and disseminate their various findings on such fora.
Day 02 (04th May 2024) started off with a powerful talk on midwifery and Climate change from the Country Director Seed Global Health Uganda, who was represented by the Research Manager Dr Andrew Twinematsiko.
From the speech, I noted that climate change is the greatest health challenge of our time and indeed our warming planet has more heatwaves, more floods, and more natural disasters that significantly impact the health of women and babies.
He added, that whereas midwives have played a great role amidst these challenges of climate change, putting resources and efforts into addressing the climate crisis is a matter of extreme urgency.
Following the above were parallel sessions on entrepreneurship, business ideas and investment by midwives, the ongoing Twin to Win project by Ugandan and Burundian midwives and a presentation on the community midwifery program at Lira University. These were insightful and highly productive topics which were timely and highly beneficial for midwives.
With an improvement in maternal and newborn health indicators as per the Uganda Demographic and Health Survey of 2022, such was attributed to some of the ongoing initiatives like Local Maternity and Newborn Systems (LMNS), Maternal Perinatal Death Surveillance Response (MPDSR) and Quality Improvement projects.
Thus, a panel session was held and issues of LMNS, MPDSR and Quality Improvement were tackled. Panellists included Dr Baifa Arwinyo from GRRH, Sr Jane Frances Acam from the Ministry of Health-Department of Nursing and Midwifery, Ms Carol from MoH-Division of Reproductive Health and Dr Ochola Emmanuel from St Mary’s Lacor Hospital. Extensively discussed were the roles of midwives in all, the challenges faced and the way forward.
Sr Chandia Agnes Baku, the Ag Commissioner Nursing at MoH highlighted the statistics clearly showing less than 50% deployment of midwives in Uganda’s healthcare system hence the shortage of midwives remains a big challenge. To note also, more than 50 abstracts were presented on day 02 during breakout sessions at the Midwifery Symposium.
As the symposium came to an end, there were concurrent activities ie poster presentations, simulation in emergency obstetrics and newborn care and a presentation on Mental Health wellbeing for Midwives.
The symposium finally came to an end with the election of the next host for the 2025 International Day of the Midwife celebrations and Western Uganda took the ticket, with Hoima Regional Referral Hospital taking the lead. Excitement filled the room and lots of dancing occurred. Thus, the 2024 02 day-midwifery symposium is a memorable one for me.
The author is; Lilian Nuwabaine Luyima; BSc Nurse and MSN-Midwife and Women’s’ Health Specialist& Heroes in Health Award Winning Midwife
