Midwives celebrate their crucial role in Samoa

By Talaia Mika

APIA, SAMOA – 05 MAY 2022: Midwives across the country and the globe celebrated the International Day of the Midwife day today and acknowledged the crucial and significant role they play in hospitals and the health system.

Twenty-seven midwives at the Tupua Tamasese Meaole hospital got together for a small celebration today to commemorate their special day and to remind themselves of the change they make in families and communities.

In their line of work, midwives not only deliver babies but also educate mothers and pregnant women about healthy pregnancies and reproductive health such as family planning.

Information shared today showed the number of young pregnant females aged 13 to 18 are growing over the years.

‘’And such pregnancies are always at risk because of their ages and it’s either the babies are born premature or something else bad happens.”

Midwives at the Tupua Tamasese Meaole hospital.

It is why the midwives role to provide young pregnant women with the information or education they need.

Almost every year, midwives had to endure the experience of mothers abandoning their babies at the hospital.

It is also an additional role for midwives and nurses to search for parents or people to adopt these abandoned babies while some midwives take them home and raise them as their own.

President of the Nurses Association, Solialofi Papalii acknowledged the work of all midwives in Samoa as well as nurses who have endured their responsibilities to the country throughout the pandemic.

“No doubt they had put their lives on the line for the country and I applaud them for that and that’s their responsibility,” she said.