Bangladesh partners with Royal College of Midwives to strengthen profession

The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) and the Bangladesh Midwifery Society (BMS) have launched a new “twinning partnership” as part of the efforts to strengthen the National Midwifery Programme.

The UNFPA, which is funding the partnership with the UK assistance, says the goal of the four-year project is “to strengthen the Bangladesh Midwifery Society to advocate for the midwifery profession and to create demand for midwifery services”.

The International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) promotes twinning between professional midwifery associations as a capacity-building strategy.

Midwives, as a separate profession, did not exist prior to 2010 when the prime minister announced the deployment of 3000 midwives to improve maternal and newborn health throughout Bangladesh.

Director General of Nursing and Midwifery Tandra Sikder attended the launch on Thursday and said the government is giving “importance to the profession so that they can provide professional care to women and babies”.

The UNFPA says in the last month’s international midwifery congress which took place in Toronto, the establishment of the midwifery profession in Bangladesh was presented as a “successful” case study.

“Although only a small number of midwives have been deployed throughout Bangladesh to date, they are already making a difference,” she said.

For example, in the disaster-affected areas such as in Cox’s Bazar district, midwives worked to care for mothers even in the midst of cyclone Mora.

The expected results of the twining project are: the BMS to have improved organisational capacity, improved capacity for advocacy for the midwifery profession in Bangladesh and improved communications.

The first year of the project will prepare the BMS for a twinning relationship with the RCM.

Activities will include an assessment of their capacity using the Member Association Capacity Assessment Tool (MACAT) and a review of their governance and member communication systems, leading to an annual general meeting and election at the end of the first year.

The BMS was established in 2010 and is the professional midwives association in Bangladesh with more than 1,400 members.

The RCM was founded in 1881 and is the Professional Midwives Association in the UK, serving as the voice of UK midwifery with 46,000 members.

The RCM has experience in strengthening global midwifery, including successful midwifery twinning projects in Cambodia, Nepal, Nigeria and Uganda.