Loveluck Mwasha, a midwife and lecturer at The
Aga Khan University (AKU) School of Nursing and Midwifery – Tanzania has
received the coveted Midwife for Life Award 2017.
Amina
Sultani of Afghanistan also received a similar Award presented by Save the Children, and the International Confederation of Midwives
(ICM)
at the ICM 31st Triennial Congress in Toronto, Canada.
The midwives have been awarded for their outstanding roles in
developing the profession in their countries despite all odds.
ICM President
Frances Day-Stirk and Save the Children President and Chief Executive Officer
Patricia Erb jointly presented the awards.
Mwasha
who has practiced midwifery for 30 years is a staunch advocate for the midwifery
profession, midwives’ improved working conditions and improved health for
mothers and new-borns in Tanzania.
She has also been a “steadfast advocate for and mentor” to
midwives through her work on the board of the Tanzania Nursing and Midwifery
Council and at The Aga Khan Hospital and AKU School of Nursing and Midwifery.
“My work is an opportunity to advocate for better support
and training of midwives,” Mwasha said. “We work with stakeholders to help them
appreciate midwives’ role in supporting women’s reproductive health, from
community groups to members of parliament.”
In Tanzania, 257 women and their babies die due to
complications of pregnancy or childbirth which means 93,800 deaths each year,
70 percent or more of which are preventable with proven and effective
interventions.
Midwives are seen as the single most important cadre for
preventing maternal and new-born deaths and stillbirths.
Especially in humanitarian contexts and for poor or
hard-to-reach populations, midwives provide the majority of immediate care to
mothers and new-borns, often without support, materials, training, or
recognition.
Mwasha has been a lecturer at the University
since July 2015 and teaches Reproductive Health Nursing –midwifery,
coordinating electives course. Her research interests are in midwifery focused care
during labour, delivery, immediate postnatal care for mother and neonatal.
Her debut in midwifery practice was when she
single-handedly attended to a woman who had just delivered and her baby was in
poor condition.
“It was in the evening and I was alone with
all the candle lights. The baby was flat, not crying and in poor condition but
I managed to resuscitate her and she survived. From that moment I gained the
confidence and that is where my career as a midwife took off,” said Mwasha in
an interview ahead of the ICM Congress.
She said the Award has motivated her to
pursue her passion for imparting knowledge that will boost quality healthcare
for women and children in Tanzania.
“I
commit to help my students discover themselves and become midwives who are
competent and can confidently deliver quality maternal and new-born care,” said
Mwasha.
Mwasha attributes her exemplary achievements
to the training she received at AKU and senior midwives she worked with at the
time she began practising midwifery.
She
holds a Master’s of Science in
nursing degree from AKU School of Nursing and Midwifery Karachi, Pakistan and a
Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the AKU School of Nursing, Tanzania
Institute of Higher Education (TIHE).
The ICM President said the needs of midwifery across
multiple settings – humanitarian, marginalised, or hard to reach – are
remarkably similar.
“Both Loveluck and Amina are working for the same goals in
very different settings: for the recognition of their work, supportive
policies, and the training and resources they need to enable mothers to give
birth safely and their new-borns to get a healthy start in life,” she said.
Save the Children President said she was “impressed” by the
level of interest in the awards this year.
Of the more than 50 nominations from 18 countries, Erb
said, “It’s heartening to see this clear evidence of midwives speaking up and
making a difference in policies and practices that affect midwifery and the
conditions under which midwives work.”
The ICM is highlighting some of the challenges midwifery
faces at the policy and facility level this week at its 2017 Triennial Congress
in Toronto.
About the
Aga Khan University
Chartered in 1983, the Aga Khan University
is a private, autonomous university that promotes human welfare through
research, teaching and community service initiatives. Based on the principles
of quality, access, impact and relevance, the university has campuses and
programmes in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, the United Kingdom, Afghanistan and
Pakistan.
Its facilities include teaching hospitals, Faculties of Health
Sciences with Schools of Nursing and Midwifery and Medical Colleges, Institutes
for Educational Development, an Examination Board and an Institute for the
Study of Muslim Civilisations. A Graduate School of Media and Communications,
an East African Institute and an Institute for Human Development are under
development while Faculties of Arts and Sciences are to be set up in Pakistan
and East Africa. Through its needs-blind admissions policy, the University
imbues the most promising leaders and thinkers of tomorrow with an ethic of
service and the skills to help communities solve their most pressing challenges.
The Aga Khan University is one of nine
agencies in the Aga Khan Development Network, a group of private development
agencies with mandates ranging from health and education to architecture,
culture, microfinance, rural development, disaster reduction, the promotion of
private-sector enterprise and the revitalisation of historic cities. www.aku.edu
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