FIGO is committed to improving women’s health worldwide. Working in the field of sexual and reproductive health and rights, the FIGO member societies of obstetricians-gynaecologists must work with national partners towards this goal. One partner of primary importance is the national society of midwives. In many countries, midwives are recognized as the backbone of maternal newborn health care and key members of the health professional team providing reproductive health services.

There are 13 countries that account for 67% of maternal mortality and 18 countries (some of the same) with maternal mortality ratios of over 1000 per 100,000 live births, mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa. All are associated with low rates of skilled attendance at birth. In countries with these critical shortages of skilled birth attendants, the training and retention of midwives is essential in order to make progress on maternal newborn and child health, noting Millennium Development Goal 4, to reduce child mortality by two thirds and Millennium Goal 5, to reduce maternal mortality by 75%, both between 1990 and 2015.

The Lancet series on Maternal Survival noted a global gap of 330,000 midwives and that, although challenging, it was possible to achieve 73% coverage of skilled attendance at birth by 2015 using a health centre model, in 75 priority countries, by training or recruiting a combination of midwives and midwife assistants. It was also noted that 24,000 birthing units, 27,000 doctors and technicians and 11,000 maternity units within facilities would be required to support them.