Are community midwives competent to practise? Lessons from Pakistan

Sarah Dobson and Najma Lalji, October 2011

Pakistan’s Community Midwife programme trains young rural women to provide antenatal care, safe delivery, referral for emergency care and postnatal care in their local areas. Launched in 2007, the programme had enrolled 8,700 candidates and trained over 2,800 community midwives by 2010.

An assessment of the quality of training has revealed several systemic barriers to the achievement of adequate competence by this new cadre of skilled birth attendants. The experience of Pakistan shows the importance of putting in place a supportive infrastructure if quality – not just quantity – is to be achieved.