title: The state of the world's midwifery: making the invisible visible.
abstract: This paper presents the evidence for maternal and newborn mortality and morbidity, and provides the background to the publication of the ground-breaking Global State of the World's Midwifery Report (SoWMy) in 2011. Supported by 30 agencies, the SoWMy provides data gathered from 58 countries on their maternity services, and makes recommendations for improving the care of and services for childbearing women by improving the status, education, and regulation of midwives globally. If governments, policy makers, professional associations, international organizations, donor agencies, and civil society take the recommended steps and invest accordingly, this will effectively lead to an improvement in access to quality midwifery services and maternal and newborn health globally.
authors.affiliation: International Confederation of Midwives, The Hague, The Netherlands. President@internationalmidwives.org
authors.forename: Frances
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Day-Stirk
authors.forename: Vincent
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Fauveau
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D014943:Global Health; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D007226:Infant Mortality; D007229:Infant Welfare; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008428:Maternal Mortality; D008429:Maternal Welfare; D008880:Midwifery / Q000193:education / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D011247:Pregnancy; D011787:Quality of Health Care