International Day of the Midwife - 5 May 2011

The theme set by the ICM for 2011 is 'The World Needs Midwives Now More Than Ever’

(Please forward details of any planned activities to communications@nzcom.org.nz and make sure you keep your cameras at the ready. We will post photos and details of events in each area on the web and publish them in the Midwifery News.)

International Day of the Midwife May 5^th 2011

Mothers who died in the recent earthquake in Christchurch will be remembered at one of the events planned by midwives in New Zealand for the 2011 International Day of the Midwife.

Up to 500 people are expected to attend a 5km walk in New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland, to be followed by a picnic and activities for children. The event will be held on May 8, which is Mother’s Day in New Zealand and balloons will be released in remembrance of the mothers who died in the earthquake in February.

The event has been organised by the midwifery department at Auckland University of Technology in conjunction with WorldVisionNZ and the Auckland region of the New Zealand College of Midwives.

Plans for events elsewhere in New Zealand include a breakfast get together in the Waikato region of the North Island on May 5 for doctors, midwives and supporting organisations such as Parents Centre followed by a 5 km walk around a local lake and a walk in the city of Napier followed by a film on birthing in Africa in rooms made available by the local council.

In Manawatu, midwives are organizing a “trail of purple feet”. Midwives will be asked to collect on a poster phrases, comments, poems and statements from the women in their care and their families about the midwives they have met on their paths to being mothers. The theme question will be “what do midwives mean to you?”

Each poster will be displayed with a trail of purple footprints around maternity venues,  making a pathway and forming some of the steps taken on the road to Durban and will ultimately form part of the steps towards safer motherhood world wide.

Midwives in Christchurch are planning a walk around South Hagley Park, followed by coffee and a presentation by Ruth Martis, a midwifery lecturer at Christchurch Polytechnic and Institute of Technology  on her trip to Ethiopa to celebrate the first graduation of midwives at the Hamlin College there. At each event there will be collections for midwives affected by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

The Virtual International Day of the Midwife, a free on-line global conference, will be held again this year: http://internationaldayofthemidwife.wikispaces.com

The Virtual International Day of the Midwife is a free online conference for midwives, students and anyone interested in birth.
It starts 12.00 hours on the 5th May New Zealand and runs for 24 hours so that there is an opportunity to attend in every time zone. Into it's third year, the VIDM 2011 has a range of topics from infant-led introduction to solids to changing the environment for birth in hospitals. We have midwives talking about their practice in New Zealand and overseas, New Zealand research which will challenge us about how we care for Gen Z women, educators talking about eLearning, students discussing how they can support normal birth and health consumers considering how to use the Internet safely for personal and advocacy use. And particularly relevant to midwives and mothers in Christchurch, we have a panel discussing how midwives can respond to international disasters which includes Christchurch midwife Lorna Davies, who has her own story to tell. For information about the program and how to access the technology, please go to the website: http://internationaldayofthemidwife.wikispaces.com For up to date information and help with setting up the technology, please follow us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/VirtualInternationalDayoftheMidwife or Twitter http://twitter.com/#%21/VIDofM or contact Sarah Stewart: sarahstewart07@gmail.com