Vol. 6(3), pp.

40-48, July 2014

DOI: 10.5897/IJNM2013-0119
Article Number: E21B0BA45966
ISSN 2141-2456
Copyright 2014
Author(s) retain the copyright of this article
http://www.academicjournals.org/IJNM

International Journal of Nursing

and Midwifery

Review

Quality issues in midwifery: A critical analysis of

midwifery in Nigeria within the context of the
International Confederation of Midwives (ICM)
global standards
Modupe O. Oyetunde and Chigozie A. Nkwonta
Department of Nursing, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria.
Received 27 October, 2013 ; Accepted 25 February, 2014

Advances in health care system are a challenge to the professional midwife in the quality of midwifery
workforce. The three pillars of quality midwifery workforce need to meet the changing health needs of
both the rural and modern highly industrialized society. Insisting on the traditional ways of doing things
in midwifery seems inadequate in meeting these challenges. New and creative approaches are needed if
midwifery as a prominent profession in health care delivery will professionally remain competitive and
contribute effectively and maximally to the demands of nations health care services. Midwife leaders
will be taking a step in the right direction in fostering the climate that promotes creativity in midwifery.
Midwifery in Nigeria had witnessed many changes, given the challenges of a low/poor resource setting.
This paper attempts a discourse on issues affecting midwifery as a profession using the International
Confederation of Midwives (ICM) global standards.
Key words: Quality issues, midwifery, International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) global standards.

INTRODUCTION
Globally, the health care industry has undergone and
continues to undergo competitive changes at a rapid
pace due to the ongoing health care reform. Coping with
this changes require new and creative model of education, service, management and organization. Midwifery is
as old as the history of human species evidenced
archeologically by a woman squatting in childbirth supported by another from behind in 5000 BC. Midwifery is a
health care profession in which providers offer care to
childbearing woman during pregnancy, labour and postpartum period. It involves providing care to newborn, primary care to well women, family planning and menopausal

care. Through the century, midwifery has grown, changing its mode of practice. Yet there are several critical
issues in midwifery practice which are not in tandem with
the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) global
standard of midwifery which alters the progress of
midwifery profession today in the some countries like
Nigeria.
Nigerias health system has both midwives and nursemidwives. A midwife would have completed a three-year
basic midwifery programme. A nurse-midwife would have
completed an eighteen (18) months midwifery course in
addition to her nursing training. Traditional birth attendants

*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected],[email protected]

(Author(s) agree that this article remain permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution
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Oyetunde and Nkwonta

(TBAs) also provide midwifery services, most commonly

in rural areas. Since 1979, the government has taken the
view that TBAs should be integrated into the primary
health care system and has approved training programmes to upgrade the skills of TBAs. However, a2002
study in Edo State found that just 16% of TBAs were
registered with the Local Government, indicating that
TBAs were far from been integrated into the system (Ofili
et al., 2005). There are no official estimates of the
number of TBAs practising in Nigeria, but the 2008 Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) found that 22% of
live births were attended by a TBA, that is, approximately
1.35 million births per year, so there must be a
considerable number.
In Nigeria today, it is compulsory for newly-qualified,
university-educated midwives to spend a year in the
National Youth Service, which usually involves a rural
posting to a state other than their home state (Africa
Health Workforce Directory, 2008). However, in the
longer term, health professionals are reported to be
unwilling to live and work in rural areas due to poor
communications with the rest of the country, poor
prospects for career progression and poor employment
and education prospects for their families (Uneke et al.,
2008). To tackle this problem, in 2009 the Midwives
Service Scheme (MSS) was launched. The MSS was a
joint initiative between the three tiers of government in
Nigeria, with the objective of mobilising midwives
(including unemployed and retired midwives) to work in
underserved areas (Federal Ministry of Health, 2009). By
July 2010 the scheme had resulted in 2,622 midwives
being deployed to primary health care facilities in rural
areas (National Primary Health Care Development
Agency, 2011).
Although the Federal government is responsible for the
management of teaching hospitals and medical schools
for the training of doctors, the individual states are
responsible for the training of nurses, midwives and
community health extension workers (CHEWs). In 2010,
there were 76 Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria
(NMCN)-accredited schools of midwifery in Nigeria. In
2003, a 3-year Basic Midwifery Programme was
introduced by the NMCN which allowed students to train
as midwives without first obtaining a nursing qualification,
and 17 of the 36 states decided to run the programme in
22 schools (16 state-owned and 6 NGO-owned).
In total, 795 students enrolled in 2003, of whom 475 sat
for the final examination in 2006 and just 223 passed
(Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN),
2011). After the basic programme, midwives can go
straight into practice or further their education by either
doing a further 18 months General Nursing Training, or
entering the second year of a four-year BNSc course.
Registered nurses can complete a Post Basic Midwifery
programme, which is an 18-month course, taking a

41

maximum of 30 students per institution per year (NMCN,

2011). Under the Midwives Service Scheme (MSS),
Schools of Midwifery run refresher training for
unemployed and retired midwives to update their skills so
they can be deployed to under-resourced areas. This
paper therefore attempts an analysis of midwifery in
Nigeria within the context of ICM global standards.
ICM GLOBAL STANDARDS
The use of global standards and their guidelines ensures
that midwives in all countries have effective education,
regulation and strong associations. ICM has developed various interrelated ICM core documents which
guide Midwives Associations and their Governments to
review and improve on the education and regulation of
midwives and midwifery, and enable countries to review
their midwifery curricula for the production and retention
of a quality midwifery workforce. ICMs three pillars are
education, regulation and strong member associations and are built upon the foundation of updated core
competencies. These three pillars are interdependent
and provide a complete package of information for midwives, policy makers, and governments. The ICM three
pillars focused on:
1. Global Standards for midwifery education along
with companion guidelines.
2. Global standards for midwifery regulation and
strengthening midwifery associations.
3. Updating and expanding the 2002 essential competencies for basic midwifery practice and affirming the
evidence base.
Matthews et al. (2006) identified four important factors for
empowering midwives namely control, support, recognitions and skills. These reflect the professional distinctiveness of midwifery but accounts for the specific role
and working environments of the midwife. In some
countries, most especially the developing ones like India,
efforts and support are needed nationally as well as internationally to improve midwifery profession. The reasons
for the dilution in midwifery profession are amended
regulations, lack of social or political priorities and change
in health programme directions (Mavalankar et al., 2011).
ISSUES
AFFECTING
MIDWIFERY
PRACTICE
ACCORDING TO THE THREE PILLARS OF
MIDWIFERY
Midwifery education
Midwifery education is largely below the ICM standard
resulting in provision of poorly qualified midwives in

42

Int. J. Nurs. Midwifery

Nigeria. In some countries, midwifery is still at the diploma

level whereas it has risen to masters and doctorate level
in other countries. How can a profession be recognized
and gain autonomy when most of the members are diploma
holders, poorly trained, rarely updates their knowledge
while in service and lacks enabling environment to learn
or practice skills?. The lack of books, equipment and
facilities in schools of midwifery and in clinical areas has
grievously affected midwifery practice. Tutors and
students have few materials for teaching and learning. In
Nigeria, the students are taught theoretically both in the
clinical areas, to improvise equipment leading to the practice of traditional midwifery care but ICM recommends
minimum of 40% theory and a minimum of 50% practice.
Hospital and clinics mostly in the rural areas lack equipment and amenities to practice midwifery care leading to
lack of evidence based care and inability to practice
acquired skills. Provision should be made to support and
supervise individuals who teach students in practical
learning sites. Unfortunately, student midwives are hardly
supervised or supervised by community health extension
workers or by midwives who are not knowledgeable on
the current standard of practice.
Saramma et al. (2011) observed lack of adherence to
minimum standards of education and accreditation in
Asia, contributing to poor quality of training. Soqukpinar
et al. (2007) lamented on the importance of standardized
and high quality midwifery education in Turkey as it is
below standard. According to Ezeonwu (2010) and
Lugina et al. (2001), textbooks and journals are scarce,
outdated or irrelevant to the local context undermining
teacher abilities to teach and students to learn. The
opportunity for midwifery educationist to collaborate with
service colleagues and researchers should be created
across the country. This will lead to development of
appropriate curricular; meet the educational and service
needs of the professional colleagues. The challenge is
not only on the skill and knowledge to enhance practice,
but also to be actively committed and resourceful, as well
as being politically sensitive in current and future service
provision challenges (Bradshaw et al., 2010).

Use of research/evidence based practice

Research is vital in every profession in achieving its optimum goal and midwifery is no exception. Health care was
founded on tradition of assumption, personal
preferences, intuitions and rituals but the recent move towards accountability, quality assurance system and audit
has necessitated a re-evaluation of the way in which
health care is delivered. Currently, there is a concerted
effort to move away from ritualistic care procedures and
to replace them with clinical practices founded on scientific
research evidence. There is few published research data

relevant to midwifery practice. Butler et al. (2009)

identified six key priority areas for midwifery research in
Ireland. They include promoting woman centred care
(management), promoting the distinctiveness of midwifery (education), satisfaction with care (clinical), care in
labour (clinical), preparation for practice (clinical) and
promoting research/evidence based practice (education).
Underpinning this new evidence based culture is the
need for more research in midwifery for professional
strength. Evidence based practice is the integration of the
best research evidence with clinical expertise and patient
values (Sackett et al., 2000). ICM recommends use of
evidence-based approaches to teaching and learning. In
Nigeria, midwifery practice is still at its historical level as
the use of evidence based practice is at low ebb. This
can be attributed to poor knowledge of and attitudes of
midwives to research, poor response to updating knowledge (though changing) and non supportive working
environment. Research output of midwife educators is
grossly low because it is not a criterion for advancement
in their career except for those who are in the University.
This may have impact on students knowledge and skill,
current standard of practice and eventually on quality of
care.
MIDWIFERY REGULATION
Professional update and remuneration
In-service training is an essential element in keeping
every professional up to date. Often, midwives encounter
situations which they never experienced in their initial
training, so continuous educational update, in-service
training, quality control and supervision is essential for
effective midwifery outcome and autonomy. ICM states
that for eligibility to continue to hold a license to practice
midwifery is dependent upon the individual midwifes
ability to demonstrate continuing competence. Assessment and demonstration of continuing competence is
facilitated by a re certification or re licensing policy and
process that includes such things as continuing education, minimum practice requirements, competence review
(assessment) and professional activities. The register of
midwives must show the practicing status of the midwife
and must be publicly available. According to the Nursing
and Midwifery council, UK, it is the responsibility of every
midwife to keep her knowledge and skills up to date
throughout her working career. Members of the global
network Health Information for All (HIFA) (2015) have
identified a pervasive peak of information, knowledge
gaps and unsafe practices among midwives in lowincome countries both during training and practice.
Ijadunola et al. (2010) observed that ninety one percent
of the maternity staff in the south-west Nigeria have poor
knowledge on emergency obstetric care services. They

Oyetunde and Nkwonta

suggested urgent reorientation/retraining of the staff in

line with the global best practice. Kaye (2000) reported
severe lack of knowledge on obstetric emergencies, such
as haemorrhage, obstructed labour, sepsis and eclampsia,
lack of standard treatment guidelines, poor quality antenatal and delivery care among midwives in Uganda.
Murira et al. (2010) as cited by members of HIFA
challenge working group, Pakenham-Walsh et al. (2011)
concluded that there is lack of confidence and skills
among midwives in communicating health message to
women. Ith et al. (2012) observed a gap between
evidence based standard of practice and the current
practice of the skilled birth attendants in labour, births
and immediate post partum care which is largely driven
by lack of supportive working environment.
The quality of time spent by patients is very essential.
Study carried out in Australia showed that nurses spent
37% of their time with patients and overtimes, spent
significantly less time talking with colleague and more
time alone (Johanna et al., 2011).
Midwives are poorly remunerated because of the
history of nurse-midwife, making it impossible for some
countries to have a separate cadre for midwives.
Midwifery service scheme was established by the federal
government of Nigeria in collaboration with the nursing
and midwifery and National Primary Health Care Agency
to employ fresh graduates and retired midwives. Due to
lack of recognition, remuneration and assertiveness, they
are paid a sum of thirty dollars ($30) which is almost
equivalent to a salary earned by a high school graduate.
It is important to stress that poor remuneration has
constantly been a factor for brain drain and poor retention
of midwives. Saramma et al. (2011) noted that majority of
Asian countries do not include midwifery as a separate
cadre in human resources planning, resulting in non
availability and distribution of midwives.
The use of expired license or no license by midwives in
practice is a grave problem in Nigeria likewise in some
other countries. As grave as it is, little or nothing is being
done about it as there is no formal strategy to check
those practicing with expired license mostly at the private
hospital, primary health centres and even state
government hospitals. The Nursing and Midwifery
Council of Nigeria (NMCN) is the only professional
Council for nurses and midwives. Its mission statement is
Maintaining Excellence in Nursing Education and
Practice. As a parastatal of the Federal Government, the
NMCN is responsible for accrediting training institutions,
registering new nurses and midwives, and disciplining
nurses/midwives, but does not always have sufficient
resources to fulfil these duties properly (NMCN, 2011).
Professional autonomy and opportunity
The profession is largely invisible because of the history

43

of nurse-midwifery and referring to midwives as nurses,

although, in Nigeria, the norm is dual qualifications RN,
RM. There should be legislative protection of the title,
which will enable the midwifery regulatory authority to
prosecute someone who breaches the legislation by
holding themselves out to be a midwife when they are not
on the register of midwives. Although the concept of dual
qualifications is the norm in Nigeria, yet there are many
midwives who are practicing and would like to be
addressed as such. The board members of Nursing and
Midwifery Council of Nigeria shows there is no strong
midwifery representation as compared to nursing and as
a matter of concern has Obstetrician and Gynaecologist.
Dennis-Antwi (2011) commented that midwifery
associations face leadership challenges or are nonexistent because midwives are recognized under
National Nursing association. Secondly due to the
medicalization of childbirth, midwifery practice is being
taken over by obstetrician most especially in the
hospitals. In English speaking Africa countries, midwifery
services are undermined by lack of standardized
education and weak regulatory systems. This contributes
to poor recognition of midwifery; limited or no career
pathway, lack of involvement in policy decision-making.
Zammit et al. (2011) observed that midwifery practice in
Malta is being taken over by obstetricians, antenatal care
by midwives are limited in the main state hospitals and is
restricted from practicing autonomously.
According to ICM, the scope of practice must support
and enable autonomous midwifery practice and should
therefore include prescribing rights, access to laboratory/
screening services and admitting and discharge rights.
As autonomous primary health practitioners, midwives
must be able to consult with and refer to specialists and
have access to back up emergency services in all
maternity settings. Associated non-midwifery legislation
may need to be amended to give midwives the necessary
authorities to practice in their full scope.
Young midwives from countries like Ghana and
Uganda are recently withdrawing from the profession and
moving to other health related career with higher
academic development due to poor recognition and non
existence of opportunities in midwifery (Dennis-Antwi,
2011). Uz et al. (2011) noted that in some countries there
are job opportunities for midwives leading to many people
moving into the profession while in some countries like
Iran, there is job scarcity and poor job description for
midwives. A study by Hatem et al. (2008), comparing
midwife-led care and medically led care showed that
midwife led care was associated with several significant
benefits and no adverse effect. The women received less
regional analgesia, episiotomy, antenatal hospitalization,
instrumental birth and less fetal loss before 24 weeks
gestation. There were more spontaneous vaginal
delivery, proper and early initiation of breastfeeding and

44

Int. J. Nurs. Midwifery

feeling of control during labour. According to Janssen et

al. (2009), planned home birth attended by registered
midwives was associated with very low and comparable
rates of perinatal death and reduced rates of obstetric
intervention and other adverse perinatal outcome
compared to planned hospital birth attended by a midwife
or physician.
Male involvement in midwifery
The last 15 years had witnessed increasing global
recognition of the importance of men involvement in
sexual and reproductive health most especially in high
fertility countries such as Nigeria. Over the years, male
have been segregated from midwifery profession until
recently. Introduction of men to midwifery is still a mirage
in some countries. Midwifery is seen as a female
profession. However, midwives call on or involve male
doctors in care of their patients forgetting that they are of
the same gender.
Schools of midwifery in some country like Nigeria do
not admit males because of their perception that it is a
female profession; as well as for religious and cultural
reasons. Male midwives in Nigerian got the opportunity
through degree programme. The perception that it is
unsuitable for men to work in maternity wards is widespread, certain cultural sensitivities exist but cannot be
abolished if the profession do not change its modus
operandi. The general clamour for men in nursing should
be extended to midwifery. Countries like USA and UK are
good examples of what men can do in the perceived
female profession. The involvement of men in midwifery
will contribute a lot to the progress of the profession as
they can lobby, fight and stand more for their right
coupled with the societal advantages of the gender.
Barker (1982) supported male midwifery saying that it
will foster a more open attitude to childbirth, encouraging
husbands to be present and share the experience of
labour and delivery. Douglas (1981) argued that if male
medical practitioners and male obstetrician can examine
a woman, then there is no reason why a male midwife
cannot do the same. Some husband stated that they will
feel more comfortable in the labour room with their wives
if the midwife conducting the delivery is a male (Sweet,
1984).
A study carried out by Abeer et al. (2011) on male
Egyptian student nurses revealed increased discrimination by the female patients and unfavourable attitude
by the clinical instructors.
Legal issues
Communication gap
Communication is very essential in services delivery as it

establishes professional relationship. To achieve organizational or professional goal, efficient communication

between the members and or the clients is vital. The
existence of inter and intra professional communication
gaps among the health care professionals has resulted to
poor quality of service delivery over the years. These
communication gaps are due to lack of assertiveness,
superiority and low level of knowledge. Robbie (2000)
observed that professional midwives often treat women
badly during birth by ignoring their needs and requests,
talking to them disrespectfully. The midwives are equally
treated badly by the health care system in which they
work; they are always underpaid, mistreated by physicians and work longer hours under stressful conditions.
According to Timmins et al. (2005), nurses and midwives
use assertive behaviour more frequently with their
colleagues than with the management/medical colleague
as it emerges as a supporting factor for responsibility to
patients/clients. This suggests the need for nurses and
midwives to learn how to behave assertively most
especially with other professional colleagues in other to
gain autonomy, possess their right and be recognized,
and this should begin from pre to post registration
educational training. Study carried out by Harris et al.
(2011) revealed the need for professional understanding
between midwives in different locations as skills in risk
assessment and decision making are highly crucial in
rural midwifery care which is undermined by contact with
colleagues.

Informed consent
Informed consent appears to be a challenging and
sometimes problematic area of practice for midwives.
Patients bills of right are rarely observed by health
professional in the clinic/hospital because of their
perception of being in charge, making it impossible to
inform the patients of any procedure. This is very
common in midwifery practice especially during delivery.
In certain procedures like vaginal examination, examination of newborn, checking of vital signs/fetal heart rate,
midwives rarely explain the procedures to the patients
and when done, hardly wait for the patient to consent
before commencing on the procedure. Informed consent
is a legal right of every patient and also protects a health
professional legally. NMC (2002) commented that midwives do not adhere to the code of professional conduct
which stipulates the requirements for informed consent. It
is not always clear, for example, what amount of information is required to be supplied to women to ensure fully
informed consent. Similarly, it is unclear whether midwives can provide unbiased information, and what
midwives communication responsibilities are, when other
health care providers become involved in care and treatment

Oyetunde and Nkwonta

decisions.
The 2008 Midwifery Council of Nigeria report also
highlights a lack of informed consent and communication
with clients as two of the themes from the 35 complaints
they received that year was about professional conduct.
Skirton et al. (2007) study on antenatal screening and
informed choice in the United Kingdom revealed that
parents and professionals regarded screening tests as
routine and therefore not requiring a decision. Symon
(1997) highlighted that carrying out a procedure without
consent can be constructed as a trespass or an actual
assault. For consent to be valid, the person must have
the mental capacity to consent, must be given sufficient
information and finally must give voluntarily consent
(Kulkielka, 2002).

Documentation
Documentation is a process in which the patients
experience from admission to discharge is recorded. It
enables all clinical staff involved in the patients care to
detect changes in the patients condition and response to
treatment and care delivery. This allows health teams to
make decisions about the best treatment options for the
patient based on accurate, objective and current information. Documentation is an essential part of the nurses
and midwives care of their patients but it is often viewed
as a burdensome activity. This is very vital as it provides
a record of evidence of care, actions, assessments and
discussions held with the patient we cared for. Documentation of care, statistic, results and practice is rarely done
in midwifery especially in developing world and mostly in
rural practice where few midwives are assigned to a large
population. Most often, community midwives rarely
document statistics such as death or severe diagnosis to
protect their job and cover their wrong practice.
Professional associations
In Nigeria, the only professional association is the
National Association for Nigeria Nurses and Midwives.
The implication of this is that midwives may not be able to
address issues that are peculiar to midwifery.

Number of practicing midwives

There is massive reduction in the number of practicing
midwives and is attributed to reduced number of people
going into the profession and increased number of
midwives, leaving the profession to another. This has
made it impossible to achieve the recommended required
number of midwives per population in all countries. WHO

45

(2006) estimated a shortage of 4.5 million midwives,

nurses and doctors with the shortage most severe in 57
priority countries. Only 40% of births in low income
countries are assisted by properly skilled birth attendants
(Fauveau et al. 2008). One to one midwifery practice
provides a higher degree of clinical outcome with reduced
rate of medical interventions like the use of epidural
anaesthesia, shorter second stage of labour, episiotomy
and perineal laceration, without compromising safety of
care (Page et al., 1999).
According to Kadidiatou et al. (2011), there is massive
shortage of midwives in health institutions and reduced
number of midwifery institutions in proportions to the
population. This is more common in developing countries
such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Congo,
Ethiopia, Tanzania, Rwanda etc. Bogossian et al. (2011)
specified difficulties affecting midwifery practice in
Australia as low number of midwives/independent practitioners and qualified midwives to teach and undertake
research in academics. According to Blami et al. (2011),
many midwives in the French speaking countries of West
Africa, such as Benin, Burkina Faso, Togo, Mali, Niger
and Cote dlvoire are abandoning midwifery and changing
to other professions such as surgery, ophthalmology or
dentistry due to fat allowances. In Nigeria, many people
are going to midwifery schools because it is a
requirement to practice, for employment opportunity or
intention to travel to a developed country.

Alternative setting for midwifery care

The last 100 years has seen several major shifts in
settings for maternity care. At the turn of the 19th century,
most births took place at home; by 1940 about 40% of life
birth occurred in the hospital and totally the figure has
risen to 98% (DHHS, 2005). Midwifery care is still moving
from the home to the hospitals in developing countries;
women are encouraged to go to the hospitals to obtain
care by a skilled birth attendant whereas in developed
countries it is shifting back to domiciliary midwifery care.
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) report showed
that 35% of deliveries that took place in health facilities in
Nigeria in 2010 were attended by a skilled birth health
personnel and this has been static for the past five years.
The 2008 DHS report showed that 25% of live births were
attended by a nurse or midwife, 5% by unlicensed
(auxillary) nurse/midwife and nine (9%) by a doctor in
Nigeria. In some developed countries, increasing
numbers of families are once more choosing childbirth at
home or in alternative birth setting rather than hospitals.
This provides families with increase control of the birth
experience and options for birth surroundings unavailable
in hospitals. Study by Hodnett et al. (2005) showed that
home-like setting for childbirth have modest benefits such

46

Int. J. Nurs. Midwifery

as reduced medical interventions and increased maternal

satisfaction when compared to conventional institutional
settings. Hodnett (2001) supported the fact that there are
some benefits from home-like settings for childbirth,
although increased support from caregivers may be more
important.

Innovation
Technological concept
Technological advances are taking over the natural
normal birth, even though it has largely improved the
morbidity and mortality rates. It is killing the natural
feeling of midwifery, affecting the therapeutic touch that
comes with the care and is changing midwifery care to
obstetric care. Childbirth in some countries like UK, USA
are defined in medical norms and takes place with a
medical context, as such is no longer purely a social or
personal event nor the province of a woman. The
expansion of medical jurisdictions into the realm of
previously non-medically defined events has led to the
medicalization of childbirth (Gable et al., 1989).
Medical frames of references and knowledge have
been accepted and legitimated within a system of
maternity care which has brought not only a surge in
engineering obstetrics but a steady erosion of maternal
choice, control and satisfaction in relation to many
aspects of pregnancy and labour, usually justified as
safety (Cahill, 2001). With the advances, telemedicine
came into existence, improving and taking health care to
the hard to reach areas. Telemedicine is the use of
telecommunication and information technologies for the
delivery of clinical care (Daniel et al., 2013).
Many midwives are unaware of this new advancement
and even when aware feels inferior to call for assistance.
The inter/intra professional gap existing in some
countries had affected the quality of care and use of
telemedicine. It is important that midwives are trained on
how to use equipment like digital thermometer, electronic
sphygmomanometer, computer and electronic foetal
monitors as they are very vital in midwifery care. This is
even more important now that the government is making
every effort to improve maternal and child health in
Nigeria irrespective of the geographical domain. Some
states in Nigeria offer pregnant women mobile phones to
enhance adequate monitoring of antenatal care

DISCUSSION
The applicability of the ICM global standards in
developing nations like Nigeria is a concern. The tripod
(education, regulation, and strong member associations)

appears to be weak and attracting little or no attention.

Education of midwives is not consistent with professional
education which may make professionalization of
midwifery to be impossible. As it is, midwifery has been
subsumed under nursing. This has implication for the
curriculum, leadership and competencies of midwives.
This has singularly led to many of the challenges facing
midwifery workforce. These challenges include but not
limited to poor recruitment and retention of midwives; lack
of identity and respect as an autonomous profession; the
profession is not attractive. In many countries, because
midwives are identified by patients and public as nurses
and dual role of nurse- midwife causes role confusion
and redeployment of midwives to other areas of nursing,
midwives leave public health system to work with governmental and non-governmental agencies as obstetric
nurses and also migrate to other countries for higher pay.
The regulation of midwives and midwifery is also
embedded in nursing. This does not give room for the
expanded role of the midwives and their career
progression. Nursing and midwifery can be under one
regulatory body with each profession having its operating
unit but this is not so. The last leg of the tripod is strong
professional association. In Nigeria, Decree 89 of 1979
has brought an end to midwifery board and midwives
have remained members of National Association of
Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM). The employment condition is also not helpful to remain as a midwife.

THE WAY FORWARD

The way out of ensuring quality in midwifery is centred on
the pillars of ICM. This can be achieved by providing
opportunities for multidisciplinary content and learning
experiences that complement the midwifery content.
Carrying out regional or national training, follow-up, monitoring and supervision of registered midwives ensuring
that they are abreast with current research, skill and
knowledge will be beneficial. The NMC&M should
conduct on site surveys to evaluate compliance with set
standard and country licensure rules. It should also
periodically investigate complaints, allegations of poor
midwifery care and ensuring that the culprits are duly
punished. The government and other employers should
ensure adequate staffing and proper staffing policy, for
remuneration and recruitment.
The quality of midwifery care must be measured to
ensure effectiveness and efficiency. Economic issues,
services (which focuses on satisfaction such as appointment, waiting times) and clinical (which evaluates the
relationship of specific processes of care and/or patient
health states outcomes) will provide a good indicator.
Efforts should be made at scaling up skilled attendance
with midwives who possess the full range of midwifery

Oyetunde and Nkwonta

core competencies. Tutors and supervisors of schools of

midwifery must be competent and experienced in midwifery, as well as educational and training technologies.
There should be legislative protection of midwifery
profession by prosecuting someone who breaches the
legislation by holding themselves out to be a midwife
when they are not on the register of midwives. The legislative protection of midwifery profession must support and
enable autonomous midwifery practice. The association
must make publicly the register of midwives showing their
practicing status. Mandate and implement eligibility to
continue to practice midwifery through demonstrating
continuing competence by the midwives before
recertification or relicensing.

IMPLICATION FOR MIDWIFERY

If all women delivered with a competent, well equipped
midwife, two thirds of maternal and newborn deaths could
be averted, and roughly 3.6 million lives saved by 2015
(Gilmore, 2013). Midwives need the space and opportunity to play a far larger role if we are to meet the
challenges of the millennium development goals (MDGs).
Hence, the need to tackle these issues affecting
midwifery cannot be over emphasized, there is need to
embrace opportunities that could improve the quality of
midwifery workforce. Removing these challenges will
however provide great opportunity for improving midwifery education, practice, midwife burnout, professional
autonomy and associations. There is need for every
country to adopt the ICM recommended global standard
for midwifery.

Conclusion
There is need to address quality issues in Midwifery, if
professional midwives will provide quality midwifery care
to their clients. These quality issues include application of
global standards as identified by the ICM. The ICMs
three pillars, which are; global standard for education,
global standard for regulation, as well as the global
standard for strong member association. These global
standards have implication for midwifery education,
practice, administration and research for the growth of
midwifery. There is need for strong midwifery representtation within the board members of the Nursing and
Midwifery Council of Nigeria; professional knowledge
update; professional autonomy; good remuneration for
midwives as well as male involvement in midwifery.
Midwifery as a focal point in maternal and child health
care delivery needs individuals with forecasting and
creative ability not only for the evolution of professional
midwifery but for the continuous development and practice

47

practice of quality midwifery care.

Conflict of Interests
The author(s) have not declared any conflict of interests.
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