Midwifery as a cultural practice

Midwifery includes knowledge and skills promoting the well-being of women, babies, children and families. Midwives ensure continuity of care and support during the natural processes of pregnancy, childbirth and after birth. They use evidence-based research, intuition, as well as empirical and traditional knowledge. Midwifery guarantees fundamental human rights, especially for women. Midwifery can be exercised by people regardless of their gender. However, the majority of the practitioners have been and are women.

Besides their medical and anatomical knowledge, midwives rely on the senses touching, smelling, feeling and observing. Their skills and knowledge have been safeguarded, further developed and passed on by the communities through numerous generations. Nowadays, the transmission takes place in formal, non-formal and informal education settings. Furthermore, midwifery entails specific cultural practices, vocabulary, celebrations and rituals, such as cutting the umbilical cord. 

An inscription based on community initiatives

Midwives are the main bearers and practitioners, who often form groups or associations. They initiated the inscription. Other networks promote the transmission of skills and knowledge, such as academic institutions or organizations for childbirth, breastfeeding, women's rights and family planning. In addition to an extensive international consultation process to develop the file, communities and groups concerned were also involved as broadly as possible at the national level.

December 2023

The nomination is on the agenda between Tuesday 5 and Thursday 7 December and can be followed via lifestream

The UNESCO International Committee will decide in Botswana whether midwifery will be recognised worldwide as an intangible cultural asset.
The necessary positive preliminary decision was made on 7 November:
Midwifery, with its knowledge, skills and practices, is to be inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
The States Parties praise the well-prepared dossier and video, in which gender equality, traditional knowledge, health care for women and living heritage for the realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals are presented.
The States Parties also praise this dossier as a good example of multinational cooperation.

November 2023

Good news! The independent Evaluation Body fully recommends the nomination of midwifery for inscription into the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity!
The Intergovernmental Committee will therefore most likely make the inscription at its meeting in Botswana in early December.

In particular, the Evaluation Body “commends the States Parties for a well-prepared file and video that highlights gender equality, traditional knowledge, healthcare for women, and the contribution of living heritage to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals”.

Further, the Evaluation Body “commends the States Parties for a file that can serve as a good example for multinational files, involving countries from across 5 out of the 6 Electoral Groups”.

November 2023

Two midwives, one Buddhist and one Muslim, defy the strict ethnic division and work side by side in a makeshift clinic in western Myanmar to provide medical assistance to the Rohingya in Rakhine state.
In 2016, tensions escalate in Myanmar's most westerly state. In response to attacks by Rohingya rebels, the military launched "ethnic cleansing": Villages are razed to the ground, tens of thousands of Rohingya are killed and a million people flee.
Director Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing grew up in the area herself. As a child, it seemed to her that Buddhists and Muslims lived peacefully side by side. When she learnt of the flare-up of conflict, she returned to her homeland and made her remarkable documentary debut about six turbulent years in Rakhine State in Myanmar, following the two midwives as they work and face the challenges they face every day and their struggle for the happiness that always comes when a birth is successful and a child is born.

The film will be shown in many German cinemas, current dates:
Fri, 17.11., Berlin, Heinrich Böll Foundation, film and discussion with the director
Sun, 19 Nov, Berlin, Eva Lichtspiele
Tue, 21 Nov, Aachen, Apollo
Sun, 19.11., Darmstadt, Rex Cinema

September 2023

This year we are celebrating 270 years of midwifery in Slovenia, which was started by Maria Theresa in 1753 with the establishment of the first school for midwives. An important milestone not only from the point of view of midwifery education, but also education in the Slovenian language. Adequately trained midwives were important not only for women giving birth at home, but for the whole society, as they have always worked in favor of families, women, children and everyone who needed help and support. To mark this anniversary, a ceremony was organized on May 4, 2023 at 12:00 in front of the old midwifery school in Ljubljana, where we remembered the beginnings of midwifery education in Slovenian, talked about important personalities who have marked midwifery throughout the centuries and up to today, the way midwives are educated and their operation at all levels of health care. A commemorative plaque was also unveiled for this purpose.

In order to draw attention to the importance of midwifery and midwives today, we held an open day in all maternity hospitals on May 5, and the day was also covered by the media. In this way, we wanted to approach the entire society and give validity to midwifery and the midwifery profession also from the point of view of midwives' actions, as the greatest defenders of women, families and children, for a better life and contribution to society. Raising the awareness of society about midwifery and the work of midwives is important, because society and its needs change all the time, but the common point remains the same, i.e. the care of women, family and children, or in other words, the presence of midwives remains from birth to death.

The Chamber-Association, at the Congress of Health and Midwifery Care at the celebratory academy on May 12, 2023, awarded the highest awards to individuals who, in their professional activities, contributed to the development of the profession. In this way, she also awarded a lifetime achievement award to a colleague who, throughout her professional career, was noted as an outstanding defender of midwifery and focused her efforts on the education of midwives until her retirement. All of us who are aware of the importance of the development of the profession, the necessary changes that are important for the entire society, were extremely honored by this recognition. With all this, we must not forget the entry of midwifery into the intangible cultural heritage on home soil, as well as the nomination of midwifery to the UNESCO list.

Saša Matko, midwife, Nurses and Midwives Association, Slovenia

July 2023

Nursing World Nigeria joined the global community to celebrate International Day of midwives, being a day dedicated to honor the invaluable contribution of midwives to maternal and child health.

• As part of activities to commemorate the 2023 IDM, the national association of Nigeria nurses and midwives led by the national president carried out a medical outreach at internally displaced persons (IDP) Camp at Wusa, Abuja. The outreach displayed compassion, care and respect for humanity which are core values of nurses and midwives, the action was well appreciated by the people as they felt a sense of belonging.
• The day was equally celebrated with a press conference tagged: “Midwives and Women’s Mental Health”. Emphasis was laid on the critical role of midwives in promoting maternal Mental health and well-being during pregnancy, Child birth and postpartum which include emotional support, counselling amongst others areas.
• Nursing World Nigeria also recognized and appreciated all midwives and nurses in Nigeria for their Unwavering commitment, Compassion and dedication to providing quality care to Women and New borns.

July 2023

On 5 May, the I World Pre-Summit of Traditional Midwives was held in the city of Buenaventura, a place for dialogue and knowledge sharing among the bearers of this cultural element. The aim of this meeting, promoted by midwives from the Pacific, is to contribute in a participatory way to the work plan for the protection of this intangible heritage and to dialogue with other traditional peasant and indigenous midwives in order to improve the living and working conditions of traditional midwives.

The work of traditional midwives is recognised internationally by institutions and agencies such as the World Health Organization (WHO), which defines midwifery as the care of women and children during pregnancy, birth and the postpartum period.
This knowledge is developed through observation and daily experimentation and forms a system of traditional medicine that has endured through the generations.

June 2023

a brief information and update meeting of our international group on our application to UNESCO for the Midwifery Knowledge, Skills and Practices Element will be held on Monday, June 26, to discuss possible steps to prepare for the Committee's decision and to report on further activities.

The Intergovernmental Committee will make a decision on this application at its meeting in Botswana in early December 2023. The evaluation panel will publish its recommendation about a month beforehand.

June 2023

The Midwives Committee in Cyprus celebrated Midwifery Day with the title: "Evidence-based midwifery care", inspired by the theme of this year's International Midwifery Day "Together again: from evidence to reality".

The activities started already on 28 April with a conference on the theme and ended on 12 May with a memorial ceremony for all midwives and nurses in Cyprus.

June 2023

The announced return of the USA to the UN Educational, Scientific, Cultural and Communication Organization is welcomed by President of the German Commission for UNESCO, Maria Böhmer:
"This is extremely confident news. I take great pleasure in the decision that the United States of America will return to UNESCO in July... this is an important signal for strong multilateralism in difficult times."

May 2023

Midwives provide essential care in spite of challenges.

WHO/Europe and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Regional Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia have launched the first-ever report on the state of the midwifery workforce in eastern Europe and central Asia. 

“The state of the midwifery workforce in eastern Europe and central Asia” shows that midwifery is vital to the provision of high-quality maternal and newborn care for all women and newborns in all countries, and that it can avert two thirds of maternal and newborn deaths. 

January 2023

The touching and multiple award-winning documentary among us women (birth in Megendi) can be seen in the ZDF-Mediathek (german) and at numerous film festivals, dates of current film screenings with a birthstorytelling café can be found here.

To make a concrete difference for women, professionals and families in Europe, you can watch the film together with friends, family or colleagues in the ZDF-Mediathek (german) and then share your experiences in a private birthstorytelling café.

> Impact Campaign for Midwifery Training (english)
The film team and the birthcafé campaign would like to use this offer to bring midwives in training and in the profession into the conversation.

April 2022

Eight countries from four continents have nominated midwifery for the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Germany joins Kyrgyzstan, Colombia, Luxembourg, Nigeria, Slovenia, Togo and Cyprus in the application.

Midwifery has been on the national list of Intangible Cultural Heritage since 2016 - now the significance of midwives for life and becoming is also to receive the necessary recognition worldwide.

The relevant committee of the UN organization is expected to decide on the applications at the end of 2023.

February 2022

Katharina Tolle presents our initiative in her blog on ichgebaere.com. 

We are very happy about that: thank you very much! 

> see the blog

November 2021

We welcome Nigeria as a new partner of our international team – beside Germany, Colombia, Kyrgyzstan, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Togo and Cyprus!