Community Based Midwives Practice in Patriarchal Social System

It is well accepted globally, that midwives can save the lives of mothers and their newborn successfully, if the community stakeholders provide support and freedom for full scope of practice. Recognising this many countries deploy midwives in the community as an intervention to achieve the MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) 4 and 5 targets set for decreasing maternal and neonatal mortality, respectively. However, high-income countries’ reports show very good results, in achieving MDGs 4 and 5 while the low-income countries lag behind in this regard. The situation in highincome and low-income countries is different because midwives practising in the community in low-income countries face many barriers. These barriers include a lack of understanding of midwives’ role, inadequate logistic arrangements, patriarchy, culture, and norms at the level of the family and society that affect all CMWs’ (Community Midwives) lives as women.