PM reminds midwives to work professionally

DAR ES SALAAM: PRIME Minister Kassim Majaliwa has called on midwives and other health professionals in the country to work professionally and increase efforts in serving the citizens.

Mr Majaliwa made statement on Sunday, during an occasion to mark the International Day of the Midwife and general meeting of the Tanzania Midwives Association (TAMA) held at the Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre (JNICC) in Dar es Salaam.

“All health professions are guided by ethics, values and guidelines, so everyone should make sure they adhere to the specific instructions to improve work performance,” Mr Majaliwa said.

Midwives perform a vital service in providing care and support to women and their families while pregnant throughout labour and after delivering. Mr Majaliwa told the association to be at the forefront in reprimanding midwives, who work against code of conduct and ethics of their professionalism.

Majaliwa said that the sixth phase government has made a lot of effort in improving the infrastructure and environment in health centres including construction of new buildings, renovation of old ones and building of staff houses close to them, to ensure they are accessed all the times.

“The government has also made a lot of effort in buying medical equipment, medicines as well as ambulances, to facilitate referrals in service centres when there is an emergency,” he said.

Mr Majaliwa said that government has strengthened the entire referrals system in collaboration with other stakeholders including M-mama project, which connects pregnant women with emergency care. M-mama is a cost-effective emergency transport system aimed at significantly reducing maternal mortality in areas with limited or inefficient ambulance services.

He said that the improvements have also focused on the areas that provide maternal and child service to ensure that wards for newborns and Neonatal Intensive Care Units are built in regional and district hospitals as well as some of health centres.

“These improvements have contributed to strengthening the quality of health services provided by midwives and other professionals in the health sector,” he said.

For his part, the Minister for Health, Ms Ummy Mwalimu said that the sixth phase government has made a lot of efforts in reducing maternal and child death by more than 80 per cent.

“We thank President Dr Samia Suluhu Hassan for enabling us to provide health services, especially maternal and child service and reduce maternal and child deaths by 80 per cent,” she stressed.

Elaborating, Minister Ummy said that the government has agreed to the long-term request of TAMA to differentiate the scope of practice between the nurses’ and midwives’ professions.

“I would like to inform you that we have received the opinions and pieces of advice of the midwives, especially in the training of lower levels midwives, we are going to solve the challenge by introducing courses in midwifery at diploma level,” he said.

Speaking earlier, the President of TAMA, Dr Beatrice Mwilike commended the sixth phase government for continuing to make major improvements in health infrastructure, which has enabled health service professionals to work in a better environment.

The International Day of the Midwife is annually celebrated on 5 May, and was established in 1992 by the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) to celebrate and raise awareness about the midwifery profession.