Swedish university offers online master’s degree for Bangladeshi midwives

Midwifery professionals in Bangladesh have received a much needed shot in the arm with a Swedish university offering them online master’s degree in sexual and reproductive health.

The UNFPA, which is helping the government since 2007 to develop this profession, Bangladesh’s Directorate of Nursing Services and Dalarna University together launched first such degree at Dhaka Nursing College on Tuesday.

Bangladesh has earned global plaudits for cutting maternal and child deaths. And yet, 170 women in 100,000 die from pregnancy-related complications, 83,100 babies are stillborn and 76,000 neonates die within 28 days.

As global evidence suggests midwives can make the difference in cutting preventable maternal and child deaths, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the 2010 UN summit promised 3,000 midwives by 2015.

The government has failed to live up to that promise and midwifery has been recognised as a fully fledged profession only recently.

The one-year master’s programme, supported by the Swedish government, is targeted at midwives who are already teaching in the midwifery programme across Bangladesh.

At the ceremony, UNFPA’s Chief of Health Dr Sathya Doraiswamy described the programme, in which members of the midwifery faculty from across the country have enrolled, as a “dream come true”.

“Building on the strong foundation that now exists in Bangladesh for professional midwives, the further education of the faculty will serve as pillars for building the midwife profession and for building a healthier Bangladesh,” he said.

Apart from caring for women during and after childbirth, ensuring safe deliveries and providing essential newborn care, midwives are known to provide a wide range of assistance in humanitarian emergencies.

Global evidence shows that professional midwives deliver “the most effective” sexual, reproductive, maternal and newborn health interventions, and are able to avert 30 percent of maternal deaths in countries like Bangladesh.

The UNFPA says investing in midwifery education and deploying midwives in community-based services can potentially yield a 16-fold return on investment in terms of lives saved and costs of cesarean sections avoided.