In February, TGH members attended the Good Birth Celebrate Quality Conference in Oaxaca, Mexico. GoodBirth is a global network of midwifery centers providing safe and respectful care to women and their families. Midwifery centers, also known as birth centers or midwifery units) provide safe, evidence-based care before, during, and after childbirth to healthy women with uncomplicated pregnancies. These facilities can be attached to a hospital or clinic, or be autonomous, but these facilities form relationships with trusted hospitals to facilitate timely access to more advanced obstetrical and neonatal care when needed. Most importantly, these centers provide quality, respectful care by professional midwives. GoodBirth works to advocate on the national and international level for midwifery models of care and to raise awareness of the compassionate, lifesaving, and affirming work done by midwives around the world.
While the TGH network does not have a specific focus on midwifery centers, some of our TGH members are members of this associated network. Our goal was to learn more about the midwifery model of care, identify organizations that might want to join the TGH network and meet with our TGH partners in person to see how we can support them more. We were able to meet with our TGH members Midwives for Haiti and Maison de Naissance and catch up on the work they are doing in Haiti and how the network can support them.
The conference theme was “Celebrate Quality”—not Ensure Quality, Determine Quality,
What is Quality?, etc. While most conferences have sessions focus on best practices for
a particular topic, rarely do they present this information as a celebration of the work
being done. However, at this conference, each session was about celebrating the high
quality of care that these women bring by integrating cultural customs, modern
medicinal practices, and immense amounts of empathy and compassion toward the
pregnant women who come through their doors. Every session spoke about challenges
and problems, but really the focus was on the incredible work that these women do and
the passion that they bring to supporting mothers as they bring life into the world. The
vast majority of the conference attendees were midwives themselves, and the stories
they told about the babies delivered brought tears to my eyes, because you could hear
the joy and the immense honor they felt to be a part of the beautiful experience of life
entering the world. So much of medicine is focused on preventing death, and it was a
privilege for me to be surrounded by women whose job is to give life.
For us as a network, one of the most important takeaways from this conference was the brainstorming of shared challenges. Whether from a small midwifery center in Mexico to a large training school for midwives in Haiti, everyone agreed that the main challenges they faced were funding, staffing, and creating processes and procedures. Complex challenges like these require collaborative solutions. That's why our Together for Global Health network brings together diverse organizations to find ways to learn from one another and work
together.
The term Midwife literally means “with woman.” For us at TGH, we want to continue to
find ways to be with midwives as they are with women and babies. Midwives play a vital
role in ensuring healthy pregnancies, safe deliveries, and positive birthing experiences
for mothers and newborns. Through this conference, I have gained a deeper appreciation of their dedication and expertise. We are committed to supporting the work of midwives, we will be following up with the connections made at this conference. We look forward to seeing ways that TGH and Goodbirth can help one another further the impact of midwives, because we believe they are essential for a stronger and healthier future for families around the world.
For more information about the good birth network, please check out goodbirth.net.
If you share our passion for supporting the vital work of midwives in Sierra Leone and
beyond, please consider donating at this link.