MIDIRS supports International Day of the Midwife.

In support of this year’s International Day of the Midwife (IDM), MIDIRS has pledged to donate 20% of the cost of every personal subscription it receives between 4th-5th May 2012, towards helping to reduce maternal morbidity rates in developing countries.

The recipient of the donation will be international charity, SafeHands for Mothers, who share MIDIRS mission of assisting in the improvement of maternity care worldwide.

Andy Fisher, MIDIRS Business Manager, said ‘We support totally the key messages that IDM 2012 is promoting, none more so than the critical role midwives play in helping to save the lives of women and babies. We believe in giving back whenever possible and hope that our support will make a tiny difference. SafeHands is a wonderful charity whose mission is closely aligned with our own. Anyone who chooses to subscribe to our services between 4th-5th May will have the double satisfaction of knowing that they will be helping to raise awareness of the continuing need to invest in the maternity profession and that MIDIRS resources will provide them with guaranteed support in their studies and practice’.

The fact that over 350,000* women continue to die each year during pregnancy and childbirth in developing countries, coupled with the continuing shortage of trained midwives in some of the most war torn and deprived parts of the world, is well documented.

MIDIRS and SafeHands share the same mission of attempting to alleviate this crisis. MIDIRS, by disseminating evidence-based information that will support maternity health care professionals and students in their practice and studies, and SafeHands by producing special training films and visual materials designed to support government and non-governmental training and advocacy programmes in developing countries.

Nancy Durrell McKenna, photographer, film maker and Executive Director of SafeHands for Mothers, said ‘I travel the world waving the flag for midwives, who I believe are exceptional human beings. Together let us make a difference to the lives of mothers, their newborns and their families.’

Customers can show their support by subscribing to MIDIRS services which start at £4.99 per quarter (Essentially MIDIRS student rate). Options include one or more of the following:

• Postal delivery of the quarterly MIDIRS Midwifery Digest
• Postal delivery of MIDIRS monthly journal, Essentially MIDIRS
• Personal access to over 186,000 reference articles on MIDIRS Reference Database

Details of how to subscribe can be found on www.midirs.org, or by calling 0800 581 009 (+44 117 925 1791) or emailing enquiries@midirs.org.

SafeHands for Mothers is an international charity, founded in 2003, whose focus is on education through the production of high quality films and visual materials to support government and non-governmental training and advocacy programmes in developing countries. SafeHands is dedicated to reducing maternal and newborn mortality globally through awareness raising, education and training to ensure that every pregnant woman has access to safe and skilled hands.

International Day of the Midwife is an annual event, established in 1992 by the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM), which aims to celebrate midwifery and to bring awareness of the importance of midwives’ work to as many people as possible. It is an occasion for every individual midwife to think about the many others in the profession, to make new contacts within and outside midwifery, and to widen the knowledge of what midwives do for the world. In the years leading up to 2015, ICM will use the overarching theme “The World Needs Midwives Today More Than Ever” as part of an ongoing campaign to highlight the need for midwives. This reflects the WHO call for midwives and the need to accelerate progress towards MDGs 4 and 5. For further details visit www.internationalmidwives.org.

*International Confederation of Midwives, March 2012

Photo Credit: Nancy Durrell McKenna, SafeHands for Mothers