Health

Conference seeks support for midwives in hamlets, villages

The Ministry of Health in collaboration with the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) held a conference in Hanoi on March 10 to lobby policies in support of midwives in hamlets and villages.
Conference seeks support for midwives in hamlets, villages ảnh 1Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – The Ministry of Health in collaboration withthe Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs and the United Nations Children'sFund (UNICEF) held a conference in Hanoi on March 10 to lobby policies insupport of midwives in hamlets and villages.

Speaking at the event,Deputy Health Minister Prof. Tran Van Thuan said thanks to support of theParty, State, ministries, agencies, authorities and internationalorganisations, Vietnam has made encouraging achievements in maternal and childhealth care.

Founded since the 1990s,the team of midwives in hamlets and villages have made significantcontributions to maternal and child health care in ethnic minority areas,particularly in reducing maternal and newborn mortalities. To date, there are3,077 trained midwives nationwide.

Accordingto reports from localities, as of January 31, 2023, there were 1,528 villagemidwives who had been trained but had stopped working due to the lack offunding. So far, the number of midwives receiving allowances has decreased toonly 911, of whom 732 also perform additional duties of village health workers.

LesleyMiller, Deputy Representative of UNICEF, affirmed that the health and survivalof mothers should always be a top and urgent priority in Vietnam's health careand development programme.

Thecommittee suggested the Health Ministry, ministries and agencies work closelywith them to review and fine-tune policies in support of village midwives.

Delegatesat the event discussed support policies for mothers and children in disadvantagedareas, as well as shared experience of localities in supporting midwives invillages and hamlets./.

VNA
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