Vol. 19 No. 4, December 2006

Index

• ICM--keeping our members in touch: ICM Secretary General Kathy Herschderfer rounds up 2006 and looks forward to 2007.
• Call for new members for ICM research network.
• New Director-General of WHO greeted by ICM.
• NZ College of Midwives.
• Young Midwifery Leader elected to Board of EMA.
• Information exchange among ICM board members--challenges and opportunities: at the June 2006 Board meeting in The Hague, members were asked to report three current midwifery issues from their region and to tell one 'success story'.
• Averting mortality from PPH in Africa: moving from research to practice/la prevention de la mortalite due a l'HPP en Afrique: avancee de la recherche a la pratique.
• ICM welcomes two recently joined members in the Americas region: Haiti and Suriname: Marie Nadege Aladin writes about the Association des Infirmieres Sages-Femmes de Haiti and Board member Debbie Lewis reports on a visit to Suriname.
• Reinvigorated activity among midwives in Liberia after 14 years of civil war: P Annie Clark of the American College of Nurse Midwives visited Liberia in summer 2006 on behalf of ICM and found midwives working hard for their association.
• Award goes to Ethiopian midwife.
• News from Ghana midwives.
• Birthing and the birthing transition in Thailand: Penny Haora and Streerut Thadakant examine current birthing issues in a country where midwifery is not yet an autonomous profession but maternal deaths have been reduced.
• 'The evidence is strongly in favour of midwives as the main providers'--says The Lancet; The Lancet has published a landmark series of articles on 'Maternal Survival' that show strong support for expanding midwifery: Elizabeth Duff reports from the launch.
• Continuity, change and collaboration in midwifery: from Japan, memories of a midwife at 95 years of age; and from India, news of a new project to improve midwifery education and care for safe motherhood.
• African Regional Health Report.
• Calls for UN agency for women.
• Healthcare information for all.
• HIV, AIDS and infant feeding.
• Advocating for the right to contraception.
• Congress held in Recife Brazil/Congreso realizado: Recife, Brasil: 20 de junio, 2006.
• Midwifery education in Bolivia.
• Muslim scholars speak out against FGM.
• Protecting breastfeeding in the Philippines.