Sensitive Midwifery - Issue 44 - October 2019

The highlight of our Sensitive Midwifery work is undoubtedly meeting and interacting with all you beautiful midwives and birth workers at Symposium, Seminars and Courses – in East London, Port Elizabeth, Johannesburg, Durban, Bloemfontein and Cape Town, in 2019. Your voice Symposium delegates highlighted six main areas of midwifery practice needing attention, if woman-centred care was to become a reality in South African hospitals: 1. Working environment • Maternity wards need to be led and run by skilled, passionate midwives • The birth environment must have a positive atmosphere, be comfortable, not be too cramped, be family-friendly, and a ff ord privacy • Safe homes, to which women can be admitted when having travelled from afar to be closer to the maternity unit, but are not yet in active labour 2. Midwife empowerment • It starts with training about woman-centred care, from midwifery curricula to workshops to Sensitive Midwifery Symposium • Midwives need to be more involved with antenatal care • A change of mindset to promote natural childbirth techniques, and to actively advocate for women’s rights in this regard, is required By far the majority of midwives attending Sensitive Midwifery Symposium in 2019 would be interested in additional education to practise woman-centred care the ‘midwifery way’, as reflected in this chart: What needs to change to practise woman-centred care We want – no, need – care training woman-centred Anterior Continued on page 7 6 eSensitive Midwifery Magazine Issue 44