This section identifies what midwives can do themselves to reduce their carbon footprint.

What you can do:

Spin the wheel – looking at ways to reduce your personal carbon footprint.

Working as a midwife

Wherever they work midwives can consider the environment and identify ways to minimise their impact both personally and professionally. As a profession the College and MERAS are signatories to the Ora Taiao, New Zealand Climate Change and Health Council’s Joint Call for Action.

In their update about COP26 and midwives and Climate Change the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) state that:

• The Midwife-led model of care is innately environmentally sustainable, promoting normalised birth that relies on few medical interventions and resources.
• Additionally, midwives are often community-based primary care practitioners that provide health services where women and their families work and live. This limits the carbon footprint associated with traveling to and from health facilities.

Midwives can also support hospitals to identify strategies and be actively involved in reducing  carbon emissions.

Global green and healthy hospitals

This is an international network of hospitals, health systems and health organisations from all over the world who are working together to reduce their environmental footprint and promote environmental health. A framework of 10 interconnected goals are identified for health sectors to consider when addressing environmental health.