Midwives on frontline of childbirth deaths crisis denied visas for key summit

Visa rejections have threatened progress on mother and baby health after experts from struggling countries were barred from talks, global midwife leaders have said. Politicians, donors and UN agencies convened this week at the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) congress in Lisbon, Portugal, a key conference to discuss the millions of avoidable mother and baby deaths every year. But last-minute visa refusals meant eminent midwives from Africa and Asia – where the majority of lives are lost – were excluded. Urgent appeals were lodged for delegates from countries including Nigeria, Ghana, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Tunisia, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Bangladesh, India and Indonesia. ICM advisor Kate Stringer said: “These midwives are leaders working in countries that bear the highest burden of deaths. “A mother dies every two minutes due to pregnancy or birth. How are we going to intervene if the researchers and professors at the heart of it are banned? “This defies logic. It is a life and death situation, perpetuated by colonial bias.” In Uganda, midwife Harriet Akello runs a lifesaving initiative that has caught the attention of the World Health Organization (WHO). She was due to speak in Lisbon on how fragmented, high-risk maternity systems can reorient to a “midwifery model of care” – where a mother is kept safe by a small team of skilled midwives. …