05/05/2026
Today is the International Day of the Midwife. Midwives can provide 90% of essential reproductive, maternal, newborn, and adolescent health services. Midwives provide care across the lifespan.
But right now, evidence shows, the world needs one million more midwives.
More midwives could reduce maternal deaths by providing skilled care during pregnancy and birth. More midwives could help prevent newborn deaths through timely care and essential support in those critical early days. More midwives could provide holistic, personalized, rights-based care which protects health, prevents harm and reduces unnecessary medical interventions. More midwives could prevent mistreatment and neglect during childbirth by promoting respectful, dignified treatment rooted in trust and personalised care.
To put it in numbers, one million more midwives could prevent 67% of maternal deaths, 64% of newborn deaths, and 65% of stillbirths.
— saving 4.3 million lives by 2035.