International Confederation of Midwives calls for inclusion of postabortion care in midwifery education

In a new statement with significant implications for the health of women worldwide, the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) has declared that midwives should be competent to treat the complications of unsafe abortion and should learn to provide postabortion care in their basic training.

Founded in 1919, ICM plays a key role in setting standards for midwives worldwide, representing 83 midwifery associations in more than 70 countries.

The Confederation's governing body recognized postabortion care as an integral component of midwives' scope of practice in 1996, when it adopted a statement titled "Care of Women Post Abortion" affirming that women who have experienced spontaneous or induced abortion are entitled to midwifery care.

The statement's recent revision - approved at the Confederation's 26th Triennial Congress in Vienna in April 2002 - builds on this previous support for involving midwives in postabortion care by calling for its inclusion in midwifery education. The new resolution urges the Confederation's member associations to seek to influence midwifery education to ensure that midwives acquire knowledge and skills in postabortion care. It also asserts that midwives' role in caring for women after abortion includes responding to their needs for emotional, psychological and social support.

"ICM's recognition of postabortion care as an essential element of midwifery education is a very welcome development which could save tens of thousands of women's lives in Africa," says Dr. Eunice Brookman-Amissah, former Minister of Health of the Republic of Ghana and currently Ipas's Vice President for Africa.

"In many African countries - as in other parts of the world - midwives are the health-care workers with the closest ties to women," Brookman-Amissah says. "In many cases if midwives don't offer life-saving treatment for abortion complications, nobody does and women die unnecessarily."

Based in The Hague, the International Confederation of Midwives aims to improve the standard of care provided to women and families throughout the world through the development, education and appropriate utilization of the professional midwife. Its objectives include developing the role of the midwife as a practitioner in her own right and promoting a framework for midwifery regulation and legislation. ICM works actively with other international organizations toward the goals of the Safe Motherhood Initiative, including reducing deaths of women from pregnancy-related causes.

For more information, contact:
Kirsten Sherk
Senior Associate, Media Relations
e-mail: sherkk@ipas.org
phone: 919.960.5612
fax: 919.929.0258