ISLAMABAD, Jan 13: The Ministry of Health has launched a new cadre of community midwives here on Tuesday under its programme of Maternal and Neonatal Child Health (MNCH) to strengthen the governments’ plan of reducing newborn and the maternal mortality rate in the country.

The trained midwives will be placed in rural areas where maternal mortality ratio is 276 per 10, 000 live births, however, the newborn mortality rate is 55 per 1000 in rural areas as compared to 48 in the urban .

The launching ceremony organised by ministry of health in collaboration with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), was held to mark the formal deployment of the first batch of midwives in their respective communities.

The first batch comprises 87 midwives who have completed an inclusive training of 18 months in the discipline. Under this Programme about 12,000 women, belonging to rural communities, are to be trained for midwifery in a phased manner across the country till 2012.

The MNCH was launched by the Ministry of Health in 2006. The objective of the programme is to bring about overall improvement in maternal, newborn and child health, particularly of the poor, marginalized and disadvantaged segments of the society, through improved access to health services.

A key component of the MNCH programme is to develop a well trained and vibrant force of community midwives to provide basic health services to pregnant and lactating women and newborns. Under this programme, 15,000 educated young women, belonging to rural communities, are to be trained for midwifery in a phased manner across the country.

Dr Rasheed Jooma, Director General Health, while sharing the salient features of the programme said that, while ‘dais’ the traditional attendants are culturally entrenched service providers, their failure to adhere to modern and safe birth practices is commonly viewed as a contributing factor to the high infant and maternal mortality rates.

It is imperative to send skilled health care service providers in rural areas. Since the cadres of doctors, nurses and trained midwives are concentrated in urban areas, the Federal Ministry of Health, through the MNCH Programme is focused on recruiting, training and deploying Community Midwives in rural areas, he added.

“Our programme of initiating the new cadre aims at delivering safe and readily accessible reproductive health and family planning services and creating a network of institutionally trained service providers at the community level,” he said.

Federal Minister for Health, Mir Aijaz Hussain Jhakharani while talking on the occasion said that the government was committed to providing quality health care services to the people at their doorsteps.

The programme he said would help the vast majority living in the rural areas with a minimal access to quality health services. He assured his full support in carrying further the programme of midwives.

Salman Ghani, Federal Secretary Health sharing the details of the programme said around 2,500 community midwives are presently enrolled and undergoing training. The selection criteria of midwives is matriculation with at least 45 per cent marks in science subjects and residential status in a specified rural area. After an intensive 18-month training and receiving a CMW diploma, a Community Midwife is capable of serving a population of 10,000 of one union council.

Pakistan is in pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which aim at reducing by two thirds the under-five mortality rate and reducing by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio by the year 2015.

Martin Magwanja representative UNICEF shared with the audiences the working of the Unicef that is presently working across the country to support government initiatives to improve maternal, newborn and child care.

Earlier, a DVD featuring various training practices performed by the midwives during the 18 months training was screened, Minister for Health Mir Aijaz Hussain Jhakhrani administered the oath of the new cadre.