Hospital committed to midwifery to open in Cape Town in May

A "FIVE STAR" hospital punted as trailblazing the face of midwifery is opening in Cape Town in May.

TMG Digital, 29 April 2016

The Origin Family-Centred Maternity Hospital in Panorama‚ Parow aims to facilitate low-risk natural birthing methods. Gynaecologist and obstetrician Howard Manyonga‚ accredited facilitator for risk management for the Professional Protection Society and member of the independent clinical governance committee of Origin‚ said: that all of his life I has learned from midwives‚ and the clinical governance committee will ensure that Origin has a just culture and gives patients the care that they deserve. Nursing consultant Lydia Botha‚ also a member of Origin's clinical governance committee‚ stressed the crucial role of midwives‚ saying it has been shown that women who have access to midwives experience fewer pre-term births‚ less intervention in labour‚ shorter hospital stays‚ breastfeed more often and for longer and are more likely to use contraception and to space their families.

Extending this partnership to all pregnant women, she added, would save millions of lives each year. If all women delivered with a midwife in a facility capable of providing basic emergency care‚ is it estimated that 56 percent of maternal‚ foetal and newborn deaths could be prevented. Late last year‚ a report by United Nations (UN) agencies and the World Bank said that 303 000 women had died as a result of complications during pregnancy or up to six weeks after giving birth in the year‚ down from 532 000 in 1990. Sub-Saharan Africa accounted for two out of every three deaths in the world. Executive director of the UN Population Fund, Dr Babatunde Osotimehin, said many countries with high maternal death rates will make little progress‚ or will fall behind‚ over the next 15 years if we don't improve the current number of available midwives and other health workers with midwifery skills.