ICM Global Outreach meeting with members.

• Tenlastelegging: News from ICM and partners - International Confederation of Midwives

In November 2008, the city of The Hague, in the Netherlands, was the focus of two activities aimed to address maternal mortality worldwide.

The ICM Executive and senior staff met on 24 and 25 November with representatives from the American College of Nurse Midwives (ACNM), the Japanese Midwives Association (JMA), the Swedish Association of Midwives, the Royal Dutch Organisation of Midwives (KNOV) and the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) of the UK--all national midwifery organisations with Global Outreach Programmes. The aim was to look at possible future collaborative efforts--and an opportunity for these organisations to share their initiatives:

Among the presentations made by the midwives about the work done to assist midwifery associations in poorer countries, the ACNM described the help they have offered over recent years in Afghanistan, Eritrea, Ghana, Indonesia, Morocco, Senegal, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The College's department for global outreach started in 1982 and it aims to:

* Provide technical assistance in maternal health, newborn health, and family planning

* Include approaches such as facility and community-based interventions, strengthening midwifery associations, and midwifery education

They have also produced a life-saving skills manual for midwives, now in its 4th edition. In the past 26 years, the ACNM midwives have worked in over 30 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eurasia.

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The Royal College of Midwives UK is a WHO Collaborating Centre and it has a recent history of international work in Indonesia, Kenya, Macedonia and Iraq; its national board in Wales supports projects in Nepal and the Scottish board works with...