Midwives are the backbone of Myanmar’s primary maternal health care system and crucial to improving the quality of services of pregnant women, now mothers’ and newborns. Properly trained midwives have reduced instances of maternal death and child deaths in Myanmar, which remain high with 200 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. In comparison to its South East Asian and ASEAN neighbours Myanmar is currently ranked as the second highest in terms of maternal mortality in the. Only Laos ranked higher with 220 maternal deaths per 100,000 deaths.

Since 2012, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in cooperation with the Myanmar Nurse and Midwife Association have trained midwives in Myanmar, and deployed them in areas, where the needs are greatest, such as hard to reach rural and internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in Rakhine and Kachin state, where health facilities are in short supply. 

Ten midwives have been deployed to Rakhine State, where they are part of life-saving mobile teams managed by the Myanmar Medical Association (MMA) providing reproductive health services to townships in the Sittwe area and IDP camps. 

To get a more in-depth perspective on the life-saving tasks which the midwives carry out on a daily basis, please check out this short video documentary on “A Day in the Life of UNFPA midwives in Rakhine state.”