Breastfeeding is key to sustainable development strategies post-pandemic, as it improves nutrition, ensures food security and reduces inequalities between and within countries. #WBW2022 will focus on strengthening the capacity of actors that have to protect, promote and support breastfeeding across different levels of society. 

Hanifatur Rosyidah is an Indonesian midwife with a master's degree in Public Health from Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam. She works as a Lecturer in Midwifery at Sultan Agung Islamic University and is a Volunteer Counsellor to support mothers who breastfeed.  

Her project with ICM’s Young Midwife Leaders Programme aims to build the knowledge and skills of midwives in breastfeeding support relevant to the immediate postpartum period. She is optimistic that if all midwives provide accurate information regarding infant feeding, breastfeeding support could be a cost-effective way of improving the ability of mothers to begin and continue to breastfeed successfully. 

The Rwanda More Happy Birthdays Project, supported by Latter Day Saints Charities (LDSC) and the Rwanda Ministry of Health, has concluded after a successful year. The project’s main objective was to improve competencies of healthcare providers in maternal and neonatal services through innovative clinical trainings and mentorships, using a low-dose and high-frequency approach. 

The More Happy Birthdays (Rwanda) project builds on the success of the 50,000 and 10,000 Happy Birthdays projects and has enabled more midwives and other providers to continue saving lives at birth. Through the project, the Rwanda Association of Midwives trained care providers using the Helping Mothers Survive (Jhpiego) and Helping Babies Survive (American Academy of Pediatrics) suite of programmes. The innovative Safe Delivery App (SDA) was included in the project to complement training and support workplace learning with short, frequent practice sessions to improve quality of care.  

ICM’s partner, Maternity Foundation developed a robust digital monitoring and evaluation system which informed adjustments to project activities and provided evidence for the improved clinical practice and health outcomes of this approach.

To develop a value proposition and policy brief for investing in midwives' associations

The International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) is seeking services of consultant/s to expand the scope of Policy Brief (Mattison CA, Bourret KB 2021): “Investing in Midwifery Associations to Strengthen Midwifery Service to Improve SRHR” and further develop value proposition and a policy brief for investing in midwives’ associations. The consultant/s are expected to undertake literature review, as well as consult ICM’s member associations in the process to make use of their expertise and adjust the content to their needs and expectations. 

Please submit your Expression of Interest which includes CV, description of your approach and methodology, cost breakdown and a cover letter specifying experience of undertaking similar assignments to admin@internationalmidwives.org. The deadline for submitting the required documents is the 10th of August. We will inform you of our decision before the 1st of September.