Vol. 22 No. 1, March 2009

Index

• ICM Secretary General Agneta Bridges gives members and readers an update on recent events from her office in The Hague.
• Meet the new ICM vice-president with a commitment to midwives' work in the community: Elizabeth Duff, ICM Communications Manager, talks to British midwife Frances Day-Stirk who has been ICM Vice-President since her election in May 2008.
• New midwifery programme in UAE has community focus and is 'designed to meet international standards'.
• Meeting the ICM Board 2: new and re-elected members form a dynamic group: this page continues the introductions to the ICM Board members who were elected by the Council at their meeting in Glasgow, May 2008.
• Alicia Beatriz Cillo, interim Board member, Americas, describes celebrations in La Plata.
• Obesity is a growing contributor to maternal morbidity in the industrialised world and beyond; international data presented at a UK conference supports the view that an epidemic of obesity is threatening the health of mothers and babies.
• Women and midwives benefit from findings in review of maternity services in Australia; Hannah Dahlen of the Australian College of Midwives describes moves in Australia to reduce inequality in childbirth outcomes and raise midwives' status.
• III International Midwives Congress: 'midwife, woman, family, and community. an alliance for life.'/III Congreso Internacional de Matronas: 'matrona, mujer, familia comunidad: una alianza or la vida'.
• At Pakistan midwives' conference, Health Minister says they are 'backbone of the healthcare system': Imtiaz Kamal and Clara Pasha of the Midwifery Association of Pakistan have sent a report of the first national midwifery conference in the history of the country.
• 'Why did my mother die? Why did my wife die?'.
• International Women's Day 8 March 2009.
• Director of Midwifery Programme announced in Pakistan.
• The State of the World's Children 2009 UNICEF report.
• WHO-UNFPA-UNICEF-World Bank: joint country support for accelerated implementation of maternal and newborn continuum of care.