The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA, in English), with the financial support of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (Aecid), presented the third phase of the project ‘Vital Midwife-Vital Community’which takes place in the Colombian Pacific.
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This program, developed with the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) and the associations of traditional ethnic midwives of the Pacificseeks to support the work of midwives in the areas of health, statistics and the protection of women against gender-based violence and harmful practices such as female genital mutilation and early unions.
The Colombian Pacific is one of the areas with the highest poverty rates and most affected by the conflict in Colombia.; The lack of doctors and the poor road and health infrastructure mean that maternal mortality figures are higher than those of the entire country.
There is also a higher rate of pregnancies among girls between 10 and 14 years old and ““Harmful practices such as female genital mutilation, child marriages and early unions continue to occur in these territories.”Aecid reported in a statement.
Given this scenario, traditional midwifery is the only provider “care and attention for adolescents, young people and women during the periods of pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum.”
“Midwives are the center of our intervention to protect life and the community. We join their efforts for the dignity, recognition and respect of this ancestral practice and its knowledge,” stated the coordinator of Spanish Cooperation in Colombia, Vicente Ortega.
The program has already provided resources to midwives and has achieved steps such as registering born babies with DANE so that mothers do not have to travel to other facilitiesas a measure against under-registration of births and gaps in access to health.
The director of DANE, Piedad Urdinola, pointed out that “Thanks to this project, it has been possible to guarantee the legal identity, enjoyment of rights and access to services of these newborns.”
For his part, the resident representative of UNFPA in Colombia, Luis Mora, highlighted that “Partera vital is one of the most innovative traditional midwifery projects not only in Colombia, but also in the world.”
The program seeks to join forces to achieve “zero avoidable maternal deaths and zero gender-based violence and harmful practices in Colombia.”
