title: Midwives and women together for the family of the world: the place of research.
abstract: In this paper, I explore the place of research in the theme 'Midwives and women: together for the family of the world'. I begin by examining each of the concepts involved. What is the family of the world? Midwives: what do they contribute to the family of the world? Women: what do they contribute to the family of the world? Putting midwives and women together what is the impact on the family of the world. What is the place of research and what is its impact? I build an argument to show that midwifery research covers social, cultural and political spheres. It breaks the barriers between midwives and women and helps create a true partnership where there is interactivity rather than just one-way information giving from midwife to woman. Once midwives interact with women, they are more likely to persuade them and the world around the women to change their way of doing things. By evaluating what they do using research, midwives are able to capture the safe motherhood success stories and effect replication where needed. With research, midwives become unified, assertive, and mutually supportive in order to reinforce professional identity, accountability and autonomy in the delivery of quality care for women and their families. The family of the world therefore has a ready source of care and support, leadership, knowledge and policies that have been tried and tested to be effective in contributing to the health of women and their families.
authors.affiliation: International Confederation öf Midwives, Eisenhowerlaan 138, 2517 KN The Hague, Netherlands. n.moyo@internationalmidwives.org
authors.forename: Nester Tirimunhamo
authors.initials: NT
authors.lastname: Moyo
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D014943:Global Health; D006801:Humans; D008880:Midwifery; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D015399:Nursing Research; D011247:Pregnancy