Message from the CE

As foreshadowed in August, September was indeed a very busy month. We began in Trinidad where I joined ICM's Senior Midwifery Advisor, Nester T Moyo, ex-Board members Sue Bree and Irene de la Torre, education expert Karyn Kaufman, and Swiss Tropical Health Institute consultants Michaela Michel-Schuldt and Axel Hoffman, for the first pilot visit of the draft ICM Midwifery Education Accreditation programme (MEAP).

We were generously hosted by the Trinidad and Tobago Midwives Association and especially President KathyAnn Elbourne, who went beyond the call of duty to ensure transport and accommodation worked for everyone (including the unexpected delays due to hurricane Irma). The staff of the San Fernando School of Midwifery and the South-West Regional Health Authority went out of their way to make sure we had access to everything we needed – documents, visits to practice sites, meetings with students, staff, midwives and women and with the senior team of the Health Authority.

The visit was extremely useful to ICM and contributed much relevant feedback on the MEAP process. We were thrilled to hear from KathyAnn that as a result of our visit she has been asked to prepare a proposal to the Health Authority for establishment of a midwife-led birthing centre within one of the community health centres. In addition, we understand that changes have begun to make the direct entry midwifery education programme more integrated and midwifery-focused. These are fantastic developments and we congratulate everyone involved for thinking so carefully about what can be done to strengthen midwifery in Trinidad and Tobago.  A second pilot visit of the draft MEAP will take place in Comoros in October.

The third week of September saw ICM at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). During this week, government delegations, NGOs, donors and civil society organisation descend upon New York to share progress made towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), meet with partners and envision new ways to create a fairer, safer and healthier world. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our partners, stakeholders and fellow advocates for midwifery who were present at the 72nd United Nations General assembly (UNGA) for supporting the work of the International Confederation of Midwives.

To say it was a big week is an understatement! I joined ICM President, Franka Cadée, Advocacy and Operations Manager, Scarlett Hawkins, and our United Nations Representatives for New York, Vicki Hedley and Joyce Hyatt, as we attended a number of interesting panel events, meetings and strategy sessions. Excitingly, the importance of midwives as an integral solution to so many health and gender inequities is being increasingly recognised on the global stage, but there is still a lot to do. We had many useful meetings with partners including Johnson & Johnson, the Population Council, UNFPA, Jhpiego, Medical Sciences for Health, Laerdal and the ELMA Foundation and we look forward to future collaboration across a number of activities.

The last few days in September saw the first face-to-face meeting of the new Executive Committee (President Franka Cadée, Vice-President Mary Kirk and Treasurer Ingela Wiklund) and focused mainly on preparation for the upcoming Board meeting in the first week of October. Led by Franka, the Executive Committee is strongly committed to a more egalitarian approach to collective decision making and ICM representation, alongside strong accountability and governance mechanisms. The first meeting of the new Board will include workshops on governance and leadership as well as business items. An important activity will be the development of the 2017 – 2020 strategic plan building on the directions set by the ICM Council in June of quality, equity and leadership.   

It is an exciting time for ICM – as the importance of midwives and midwife-led services is better recognised globally – and as we work to secure a more sustainable future for the organisation. We will continue to advocate for bold action and strong commitment to midwives everywhere and to strengthen ICM to meet the needs of all our members.

Kia Kaha

Sally Pairman

Chief Executive 

News Brief 

Call for submission: Stories for the Healthy Newborn Network

ICM is partnering with the Save the Children's Healthy Newborn Network to promote midwifery as a solution to critical gaps in newborn health. We are therefore seeking articles (English, Spanish and French) of not more than 600 words  from midwives in low and middle income countries. The articles will be published on the Healthy Newborn Network BLOG for more information on how to submit click HERE 

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ICM welcomes you to purchase several products in our store. For more information click HERE. Send your inquiries to admin@internationalmidwives.org 

Photo snippets 

Partners in Reproductive Maternal Newborn Health met at the United Nations General Assembly (L-R)- FIGO Chief Executive, Johan Vos; Franka Cadée, ICM President; Sally Pairman, ICM Chief Executive and FIGO President, Prof. Chittaranjan Narahari Pundare

Ex-ICM Board Members (middle L-R) Sue Bree, Irene de la Tore, Expert Midwife for Swiss TPH, Michaela Michel-Shuldt with midwives from San Fernando at a antenatal class. The photo was taken during the first Midwifery Education Accreditation Programme (MEAP) pilot mission to Trinidad and Tobago early September 

ICM staff with a delegation of University staff  from Afar, Ethiopia. The delegation visited the ICM Head Office in the Hague to learn about ICM, how to ensure their midwifery programme meets global standards, strengthening capacity of their teachers and getting the right quality of students into their midwifery programme. 

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