Five ways Sweden is supporting the world’s maternal health heroes: Midwives

New York, UNITED NATIONS – Midwives are the unsung heroes of our time. In periods of turbulence and uncertainty, midwives provide a lifeline not only for safe births, but for entire communities and societies, particularly in crises. 

The facts: When properly supported, midwives can avert roughly two thirds of all maternal and newborn deaths and stillbirths, and deliver 90 per cent of all essential sexual, reproductive, maternal and newborn health services.

Yet midwives are under-supported, left without the training and financial resources they need to perform their work. The Government of Sweden is one of the world’s largest supporters of midwifery through UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, and has played a vital role in scaling up midwifery services globally.

Below are five ways Sweden is championing midwives.

1- Supporting midwives on the front lines of crisis 

Midwives play a critical role in responding to crises and preparing health systems to protect communities, even in the most challenging situations. When crisis strikes, midwives are among the first responders, delivering life-saving support with minimal resources, distributing essential supplies, and ensuring continuity of care.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where chronic underfunding has hampered the health system, Sweden has supported midwifery training and improved sexual and reproductive health services in areas like Greater Kasai, where five midwifery schools have now integrated a new, competency-based curriculum. 

Amid ongoing war and displacement in Ukraine, Sweden is supporting the ‘Midwife in the Community’ project. This initiative expands midwives' opportunities through educational programmes and mentoring, helping midwives ensure continuity of care even in times of conflict.

2- Reaching marginalized and climate-affected communities

Even outside of conflict zones, midwives are critical in complex contexts. In Zimbabwe, midwives trained with Sweden’s support provided essential care when El Niño-induced flooding disrupted access to health services. 

In Bangladesh, Sweden has funded scholarships for midwifery education, opening doors for girls from the Chittagong Hill Tracts, one of the country’s most marginalized ethnic regions. As one recipient, Hla Sang U Kheyang says, “With this scholarship, everything has become so real; I can not only become a midwife and serve my community but also dream of higher studies and beyond.’’

3-Investing flexible funds in maternal health

Investments in midwives are needed to ensure they are trained and equipped to provide sexual and reproductive health services consistently and sustainably. Investing in midwifery is also cost-effective: A study in Morocco found that every $1 invested in care provided by midwives delivers up to a 16-fold return in economic and social benefits. 

Sweden is the largest donor to UNFPA’s Maternal Newborn Health Fund, which has helped train and support over 550,000 midwives, enabling more than 30 million women to access safer delivery care and scaling up maternal mortality monitoring systems in many countries.

In Bangladesh, support from the Fund helped the government to create 5,000 new midwife positions, leading to a nearly 10 per cent jump in assisted deliveries at the subnational level, from 78 per cent in 2022 to 87 per cent in 2023.

Sweden is also a top donor to UNFPA’s core resources, offering flexibility to invest in maternal health where it's most urgently needed. In Zambia, core funding was used through UNFPA’s Emergency Fund to respond to the cholera outbreak, deploying midwives to offer specialized essential services to women infected with the disease. The midwives played a pivotal role in ensuring the safety of both mothers and newborns during this public health crisis.

4- Deploying Swedish midwives globally

In countries like Rwanda, Sweden’s support has gone beyond funding, it has sent midwives to the front lines. Frida Temple, a Swedish midwife working with UNFPA in Rwanda, supports the country’s national strategy to revive the midwifery profession. Not long ago, enrolment in midwifery training had dropped to just 20 percent.

“Today, the number of midwives is being quadrupled over four years,” she says. “We’re supporting this strategy through scholarships and ensuring consistent, high-quality training with a national curriculum.”

Frida’s work is a testament to the power of global solidarity, and Sweden’s long-standing commitment to maternal health: sharing skills, investing in systems, and empowering community resilience everywhere. “Sweden’s continued support to midwifery, from academia and research to bilateral and multilateral cooperation, is deeply inspiring,” she told UNFPA. 

5- Advocating for midwives on the global stage

Beyond financial support, Sweden is a global advocate for midwifery. At the 58th session of the Commission on Population and Development, Sweden and UNFPA championed the launch of the Midwifery Accelerator, a new initiative to urgently step up investment in midwifery care and offer an evidence-driven approach to expand access.

These are just a few examples of how partners like Sweden can make a difference in the lives of women and girls, ensuring women can give birth safely and societies as a whole can thrive. As we celebrate the International Day of the Midwife, it’s time to recall that investing in midwives is investing in our societies and economies.