“It’s a girl!” announces Obodji Caroline, a trainer at a midwifery school in Abidjan, the largest city in Côte d’Ivoire. The “newborn” is called Natalie and is a baby mannequin.

With a global shortage of 900,000 midwives, training the next generation of these crucial health workers, to avoid preventable deaths and ensure safe births, is a priority for the UN Population Fund. The training school in Abidjan is one of eight schools UNFPA supports in the country. 

Mannequins such as Natalie weigh 3.3 kg, around the average birth weight of a full-term baby. They’re used to simulate childbirth, including emergency deliveries, in a safe, realistic and risk-free environment – because in real life, there is no test run.

In Côte d’Ivoire, many women give birth without the assistance of a skilled health professional. With the support of UNFPA, the National Institute for the Training of Health Workers is working to change this, and also tackling the country’s high rates of maternal mortality and adolescent pregnancy and low contraceptive prevalence.

Here, a look inside the midwifery school in Abidjan.

Students at the school receive training on family planning methods as well. Here, a trainee holds a vial of Noristerat, an injectable method of contraception.

In all, the midwifery schools in Côte d’Ivoire trained 2,796 midwives in 2024. When trainees graduate from the course, which lasts for three and a half years, they do so with life-saving skills to assist pregnant women and newborns.

"To save more lives, we need more midwives. UNFPA's midwifery training programmes are helping close the gap, especially in rural and hard-to-reach areas," said UNFPA Executive Director Diene Keita. "The midwifery school in Abidjan that I visited is a beacon of excellence and is strengthening the midwifery model of care in Côte d'Ivoire.”

UNFPA’s partnership with the Government of Côte d’Ivoire is helping to reduce maternal mortality and increase the use of modern contraceptives, in an effort to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, and avoidable maternal deaths are prevented.