The Chairperson, NANNM, Lagos State Chapter, Madam Christiana Adeboboye, Dr. Ismail Abdul-Salam, Director Epidemiology, Biosecurity and Global Health, and other executives after the walk on Tuesday.
A clarion call has gone to all stakeholders to ensure increased investment in training and recruitment of Midwives and that midwives are well taken care of with needed resources and incentives to motivate them to perform optimally and discharge quality care in our hospitals.
This appeal was made as Nigeria joined the rest of the world to mark the International Day of the Midwife to recognise the critical role midwives play in improving maternal and newborn health.
The International Day of the Midwife (IDM) 2026 theme is “One Million More Midwives,” aligned with the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) campaign. This theme highlights the global shortage of skilled birth attendants, urging investment and political action to increase the midwifery workforce to improve maternal and child health outcomes worldwide.
Speaking after Health Walk organized to mark the day, the Chairperson, National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives, NANNM, Lagos State Chapter, Madam Christiana Adeboboye, advocated for policies allowing midwives to work to their full potentials in safe and secured environment with full incentives like accommodation, transportation, hazard allowances as midwives are providing safe and respectful care.
She explained further that the “One Million More Midwives” call aims to reduce the global burden of maternal and newborn mortality. “We therefore called on governments and policymakers to strengthen health systems by training and employing more Midwives.” She concluded
Also speaking at the event, Dr. Ismail Abdul-Salam, Director Epidemiology, Biosecurity and Global Health, who represented the Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Health, Dr. Dayo Lajide, reassured them that the state government is doing everything possible to reduce maternal mortality rate as well as have more professionals trained.
“Lagos State has been proactive over the years by providing more maternal and child centers across the state with more general hospitals. Our amiable governor in collaboration with the state house of assembly has approved the University of Medical and Health Sciences aimed at bringing more professionals on board to bridge the gap of braindrain. A lot is going on in the state because we realized the need to reduce the infant and maternal mortality rate drastically. We also need the support of private sectors too for us to achieve the desired objectives.” Dr Abdul-Salam stated.
In her speech, the Lagos State Policy and Advocacy Coordinator, the BOOST Project of Save the Children International, Dr. Itunu Dave-Agboola, urged all stakeholders to do everything possible to ensure that every child is fully immunized.
“The BOOST project is a project targeted at zero dose children and under immunized children. By zero-dose children, we mean children who have never received any immunization in their lives and by under-immunization, we mean children who started but somewhere along the line, they didn’t complete their immunization.”
L-R: Tosin Matthew Akinsiku, Dr. Itunu Dave-Agboola of SCI, BOOST PROJECT, Madam Christiana Adeboboye, Dr. Ismail Abdul-Salam and other dignitaries at the workshop later in the day.
“It’s my pleasure to celebrate with midwives on this special occasion because they are awesome, without them, the healthcare delivery system cannot be effectively done. When it comes to caring for children from pregnancy to delivery and after delivery, midwives are there as frontline workers to take care of the child and mother all through.
Though the state government is trying but there’s need to do more because the largest room in the world is the room for improvements. We still have a lot to do in terms of adequate human resources that’s making the work overwhelming for doctors, nurses and midwives.”
Dave-Agboola also reiterated the need to curb activities of quacks and appealed for increased, domestic resource mobilization for routine immunization for maternal and child health. Because we really need to save more lives a lot of children are dying from childhood preventable diseases, those behind the waters in hard to reach riverine areas, we need to get across to them and ensure that they have access to good health care services as well.”
We have midwives going to rural communities and riverine areas to work. They deserve better housing and transportation facilities. There are over 200 villages behind the waters in Lagos and women are giving birth there on daily basis too. So, we should go beyond mere incentives, we should look deep down into things that attract them and can retain them in such difficult working environment. They need more training and retraining.
“”We need more Midwives because they are critical to safe pregnancy and delivery. We should invest in more midwifery colleges. Let us encourage them by providing enabling environment for Midwives. Our hands are healing hands and we are here to save women, babies, the family and community at large, so, we are advocating for training of one million more Midwives. This can be done through retraining and training, we need to keep updating knowledge.“
Tosin Matthew Akinsiku of Pregnancy Lounge called for more support and collaboration with NANNM for the great works they are doing considering the number of those traveling out for greener pastures. In line with this year’s theme; “One Million Midwives, one message stands clear: supporting midwives is key to safeguarding the lives of mothers and their babies.