"Midwives: Defenders of Women's Rights"
Burundi celebrated Friday,
May 17, 2019, the International Day of the Midwife, 2019 edition under the
theme: "Midwives: defenders of women's rights".
The Assistant to the UNFPA
Representative in Burundi paid tribute to the midwives for the work already
done to reduce maternal, newborn and child mortality.
He stressed that the
insufficiency and poor distribution of practitioners in matters of health and reproduction
constitute a bottleneck to set up quality services, one of the axes of the Sustainable
development goals.
The Permanent Secretary at
the Ministry of Public Health and the Fight against AIDS Jean Baptiste
Nzorironkankuze said that despite the efforts made by the Government such as
free health care for pregnant women and children under 5 years, the
establishment of referral hospitals and supervision of midwives, the maternal
and infant mortality rate remains high in Burundi compared to Africa and the World.
Dr. Juma Ndereye, Director
of the National Reproductive Health Program in his presentation, indicated that
the midwives contribute to the reduction of maternal and infant mortality in the health care structures especially that the number of
gynecologists is very reduced in Burundi because 'there are only 24
gynecologists and 24 pediatricians present in the country where even almost all
of them are in Bujumbura.
He noted that midwifery
graduates totaled 1,319 in 2019, but only 192 have jobs in care structures or
in NGOs. On behalf of the Association of Midwives, Dr Juma ndereye is asking
the government to hire them, because he says only 15% work in care structures or
NGOs.
The President of the
Association of Midwives of Burundi Mrs. Nkanira Bernadette stressed that all
these problems encountered by midwives are linked to the lack of a regulatory
and regulatory framework specific to the profession of midwives (order of
midwives of Burundi )
The other problem is
related to the lack of equipment and medicines because, according to Ms. Nkanira
Bernadette, the knowledge necessary for the exercise of their profession is
sufficient to contribute to the reduction of maternal and infant mortality.
there is a Young Midwives Association which has been created `` The Midwife in
Action's Association (MAA Vyara Uheke) '' ( https://web.facebook.com/MAABURUNDI ) to
contribute to the remarkable reduction of maternal mortality. starting with
community health by equipping families with the knowledge to reach maternity
with all the information necessary to eradicate all preventable maternal-fetal
mortality
Regarding the question of
why the maternal and infant mortality rate remains high in Burundi, Dr. Juma
Ndereye clarified that it is due to hemorrhage, infection and hypertension.
He asked each pregnant woman to
approach the health facilities because when these diseases occur there are
medicines and qualified personnel to solve this problem.
Augustin HARUSHIMANA,Burundian Midwife
