The MSF was developed by the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM), a non-governmental organisation and its partners, to support the development and strengthening of midwifery services across countries, with a focus on building a quality workforce.

Ms Nester T. Mayo, a Senior Midwifery Advisor, ICM, at a two-day introductory meeting hosted by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Ghana in Accra, said the framework provided health system developers and planners, maternal and newborn health experts, policy makers and other stakeholders, such as midwives, educators, regulators and professional associations with an evidence-based tool.

Form this, she said, they could develop new or strengthen existing effective and efficient midwifery services.   Ms Mayo said the MSF also supported the implementation of the midwife-led model of care, which had proven to be an effective and desirable model of care provision for women and their families.

She said as maternal-newborn health and strengthening midwifery were priorities for the Government, the ICM proposed that the MSF be considered by the Ministry of Health (MOH) to help support efforts at addressing these priorities. Additionally, she said, it had introduced the Safe Delivery Apps (SDA), which is a product of the Maternity Foundation (MF), a Danish-based International Development Organisation.

It works towards reducing maternal and newborn mortality and morbidity in low and middle-income countries. Ms Ida Marie Boas, the Programme Manager, working on mHealth and Monitoring and Evaluation at the MF, said the SDA was an innovative mobile tool, developed by the MF in partnership with the University of  Copenhagen and the University of South Denmark, to help health professionals to identify and manage obstetric complications in cases of emergency.

She said the SDA aimed to improve the quality of maternal and neonatal care at peripheral health facilities in developing countries, by teaching and instructing birth attendants on how to manage normal and complicated deliveries through animated clinical instruction films that are visual and easy to understand.

She said the MF’s strategy was to empower and mobilise women in rural communities to prioritise maternal health issues and seek care, and also to strengthen the skill levels and quality to obstetric care received at hospitals and health centres.

Dr Jemima A. Dennis-Antwi, who doubles as the President of the Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives and Board Member of ICM, representing Anglophone Africa, said a lot was being done globally to meet the changing face of midwifery practice, thus expanded training was key to equip professionals with extra skills to enable them to deliver quality for the reduction of maternal and newborn morbidity and mortality.

The meeting, she said, would illuminate the ICM’s understanding of SRMNAH services in Ghana, offer a platform for their presentation of the MSF and SDA in detail to stakeholders who were from the health sector, policy makers and academia. The ICM would then engage the stakeholders in discussions on the processes and how these tools could be used to support existing local ones, and also agree on the next steps, resources and timelines, including the roles and responsibilities of the government, stakeholders and partners on implementation.

Mr George Kumi Kyeremeh, the Director of Nursing Services, who represented Mr Alex Segbefia, the Minister of Health, said Ghana would not achieve its envisioned national development if it overlooked such a key component as the health of its population.

This, he said, had been the Ministry of Health’s focus, and it had been working hard to achieve this through the introduction of various policies and strategies to ensure improved health care for Ghanaians. He, however, said the efforts being made would require the involvement of all stakeholders for successful implementation, and the Ministry of Health welcomed any effort aimed at achieving its objectives.