Govt to appoint 10,000 more midwives to ensure better services to mothers, newborns: PM Sheikh Hasina

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday said the government will appoint 10,000 more midwives gradually to ensure better healthcare for mothers and newborn babies.

“In 2010 at a programme in the United Nations headquarters, I pledged to recruit 30,000 midwives. In continuation of that the government has been able to appoint 20,000 midwives. The remaining will be appointed gradually,” she said.

The prime minister said his while inaugurating a two-day event titled “ICPD30 Global Dialogue on Demographic Diversity and Sustainable Development” that creates a platform to discuss the challenges and explore the opportunities of the world’s shifting demographics.

The programme at Hotel Intercontinental has been organised by Bangladesh, Bulgaria and Japan along with UNFPA.

She said that in 2009, following a massive popular vote, Awami League came to power for the second time.

“Upon assuming office, we adopted the National Population Policy 2012, incorporating 15 core principles of the ICPD Program of Action (PoA) into practical implementation,” she said.

She mentioned that the government has launched extensive programmes to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality rates, provide healthcare services to mothers and newborns, and offer reproductive health services to adolescents.

“We revived the stalled Community Clinic project with the aim of extending healthcare services to remote areas of the country,” she said.

Currently, over 14,000 community clinics are operational across the country.

Through these clinics, she said, around 30 essential medicines, including those for maternal and child health, are provided at free of cost.

She also said that merely 3,000 of these clinics offer 'Skilled Birth Attendance' services.

Furthermore, under the Directorate of Family Planning, the government is providing maternal, child, and adolescent healthcare services, as well as family planning services, through 3,290 union health and family welfare centers/clinics.

Among them, 2,200 centres provide round-the-clock normal delivery services.

“We have also planned to recruit four nurses per center to provide these services, " she said.

Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud, UNFPA Executive Director Dr Natalia Kanem, Minister of Social and Family Development Of the Maldives Aishath Shiham, Kiribati’s Minister for Women, Youth, Sports and Social Affairs Martin Moretti, Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan Yasushi And State Minister for Health and Family Welfare Rokeya Sultana also among others spoke at the programme.

Representatives from the government of Bulgaria also joined the opening ceremony.