News for and from our global midwife community

Our 'Stronger Together' webinar series aims to gather perspectives and insights from key groups of Midwives and women with the goal of informing the Decade of the Midwife — a 10-year campaign  beginning in 2021 that centres Midwives as the key to delivering SDG 3.1 (reducing maternal death to 70 per 100,000 globally). 

Through this webinar series, we’ve now heard from Indigenous Midwives, student and new Midwives and most recently Midwives in leadership roles.  

• If you missed the Midwives in Leadership event on Oct 27, click here to access the event recording  

• If you missed the New and Student Midwives event on Oct 13, click here to access the recap and click here to access the event recording 

• If you missed the Indigenous Midwives event in partnership with the Wilson Center’s Maternal Health Initiative and UNFPA, click here to access the recap and click here to access the event recording 

Stay tuned to your inbox and ICM social media channels for more information regarding our upcoming Women & Midwives webinar — a conversation with women and their Midwives focusing on respectful maternity care and empowering women and all people who are pregnant and giving birth to make informed decisions.  

The date for this event will be announced shortly. 

One stillbirth occurs every 16 seconds, which means that about 2 million babies are stillborn every year. While available data demonstrates that stillbirths are an increasingly critical global health problem, this traumatic loss of life remains a neglected issue in many countries. 
 
This past October, the United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME) released the first-ever joint stillbirth estimates. The report presents the number of babies that are stillborn every year due to pregnancy and birth-related complications, and the absence of health workers and basic services. The report also notes there is a high risk that the COVID-19 pandemic may dramatically increase the number of stillbirths.  

Access the report in five different languages here.  

To launch the report, UNICEF, in collaboration with ICM and other partners, hosted a digital event convening a panel of country representatives, Midwives, bereaved parents and global experts to discuss results from the report and the global tragedy of stillbirth. 

We’ve completed three year-end Regional Meetings where representatives from many of our 143 Midwives Associations have had the chance to network with their fellow midwives, kick-off the planning process of their regional work plans and provide feedback on the draft ICM Triennial Strategy 2021 - 2023. These meetings have also provided an opportunity for our MAs to connect with the Head Office staff members who will be working with the regional Board Members to provide support to each region — a new initiative we have begun as a response to requests from our members for more support in strengthening MAs and regions. 

Thank you to our MA representatives from the Americas, Africa and Europe, as well as our Board Members, for contributing to robust and productive planning sessions that will inform our regional priorities as we move into the Decade of the Midwife.  

The remaining Regional Meetings will take place throughout the first half of November. Two representatives from each Midwives' Associations are permitted to attend their respective Regional Meeting. If you’re unsure of what region you belong to, check here.  

Register at the links below:  

• Eastern Mediterranean Regional Meeting | 4 November, 10:00-12:00 CET | Register here  

• South East Asia Regional Meeting | 11 November, 09:00-11:00 CET | Register here  

• Western Pacific Regional | Meeting 18 November, 08:00-10:00 CET | Register here 

The ICM Board has decided to transfer the 2021 32nd Triennial Congress to a virtual format instead of continuing with plans for a face-to-face Congress in Bali. The ICM Board reached this decision after consideration of all available information regarding the progression of the COVID-19 pandemic from the WHO, the Indonesia government, the Indonesia Midwives Association, our members and our partners. 

Read ICM’s statement on this decision here.  

On November 6, we will share a comprehensive fact sheet on the news section of our website, with updates and instructions for our registrants, speakers, partners, exhibitors, and those looking to register for the virtual event. We are happy to receive your questions at queries@midwives2021.org  but we will not respond to these until after the 6th November when we have confirmed information to share with you.  

Our Head Office staff may be located around the world, but we were still able to participate as a team in Jhpiego's Miles for Mothers Remix campaign!  

As part of this campaign, more than 200 participants from 13 countries walked, ran and danced raising over $45,000 to support and equip frontline health workers with lifesaving personal protective equipment.

Thank you to Jhpiego for organising this important initiative, and to those in our global Midwife community who donated.  

There’s still time to help provide PPE to Midwives and other frontline healthcare workers...

ICM's weekly media roundups aim to provide our global community of Midwives and women with a summary of the regional and world events impacting maternal and newborn health, gender and global development. This space will also highlight the life-saving work of our Midwives' Associations, as well as ICM initiatives to advocate for Midwives, women and their families.