By profession being a nurse with public health education WHY passionate about Midwifery!!!

Being a public health professional with a nursing background no one knows why I am very much passionate about Midwifery service and workforce.

I am not associate with any external development partners nor I do full time work for any organisations. Despite this WHY I am very much passionate on midwifery sometime I myself wonder and ponder.

In fact, I am very much passionate about midwifery because as a nurse my developmental career as a profession started from Women Rehabilitation Centre in 1996 where I got an opportunity to learn and about the importance about sexual and reproductive health and women's health. Since then I have been continuously involving in sexual, reproductive and maternal health in different capacities and abilities that I have.

However, after establishing APS Birth and Reproductive Health Centre in 2007 partnering with 15 female professions and housewives I came in to contact with midwives across the world especially from high income countries such as UK, Canada, USA, Australia, Sweden, Germany, New Zealand and so forth.

And in 2009 while I was working for GIZ "Support to Peace Process Project" that support People's Liberation Army (by then Maoist Combatants) in their 28 different cantonment located from east to west of Nepal where again I was very much involved educating about Reproductive Health to the Maoist combatant health workers and got an opportunity to attend "IX International Confederation of Midwives Regional Asia-Pacific Midwives’ Conference" held in 19-22 Nov, 2009 in Hyderabad, India where I also presented about "Factors that Persuaded Nurses to establish a Maternity Care Centre: Experience from Nepal".

From this conference I got to learn and understand that only workforce that makes difference in the lives of girls and women's is a MIDWIFE because they are prepare and produce for "Sexual, Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn and Adolescent Health (SRMNAH).

After coming back to Nepal together with Rita Pokharel from Nick Simon Institute I took lead role to initiate for the establishment Midwifery Association of Nepal known as "Midwifery Society of Nepal" under the president-ship of Prof. Kiran Bajracharya partnering with 11 nurses working for maternal and women's health and was fully registered the organisation in 2010 February.

Global evidence suggests that Well-trained midwives together with a recruitment, deployment and retention plan could help avert roughly "two-thirds" of all maternal and newborn deaths (UNFPA, ICM & WHO 2014). Midwives could also deliver up to 87% of all essential sexual, reproductive, maternal and newborn health (SRMNH) services. Midwives are one of the most cost-effective and culturally sensitive path to achieving universal health care, if practicing in an enabling environment and supported by regulations.

Reference

UNFPA, ICM & WHO 2014. The State of the World Midwifery 2014: A Universal Pathway. A Women's Rights to Health. United Nations Publications, New York.