Tuesday, March 8, 2011
International Women's Day: Malawi's missing midwives | Brigid McConville
In Malawi the risks of women dying in childbirth are among the highest in the world, and local women need to be empowered to press for changeOn a fact-finding missing to Malawi, I can't help noticing a 5 metre-high billboard at Lilongwe airport: a young woman in jogging gear and headphones advertising an offer of high-speed downloads, live TV, music and video calls. Mobile phone technology has truly arrived.But midwives and nurses still haven't. Around three-quarters of staff positions in Malawi are vacant, and sometimes women are arriving at health facilities in rural areas to give birth ? to find only a cleaner to assist them. It's only 50-50 that a woman in Malawi will have a midwife, nurse or doctor on hand in childbirth; the rest give birth alone or with only a neighbour to help.In
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