Midwifery Educator Core Competencies

Overview
As the year 2015 comes nearer it is already obvious that in many countries the target for
maternal mortality reduction – Millennium Development Goals (MDG) – will not be met. It is
also clear that in spite of the major progress in MDG 4 on child mortality, newborn mortality
is not declining at the same rate as child mortality after the first month of life. Both maternal
and neonatal mortality need more attention: quality services for all women and babies during
pregnancy, delivery and the postnatal period.
The demand for quality services continues unabated. The fertility decline is modest in most lowand lower middle-income countries and numbers of deliveries continue to grow. Many women
still deliver at home with limited skilled attendance, because services are not accessible or are
perceived to be of poor quality. New approaches such as incentives for women to deliver in
health facilities and pay-for-performance of health workers are intended to increase coverage of
deliveries by health institutions and increase the quality of services provided.
The foundation for quality services lies in having an adequate competent midwifery workforce. In
many countries there are still critical shortages of midwives. Moreover, the training programmes
are suboptimal. This is not only because of a dearth of training resources, but particularly
because competent educators are lacking.
The key to a competent workforce is education. Strong education institutions are needed to
secure the numbers and quality of health workers as the performance of health care systems
depends on the knowledge, skills and motivation of the people responsible for delivering services.
This publication focuses on midwifery educator competencies, which is a critical but neglected
component of education. One survey suggested that only 6.6% of the present teaching staff
in developing countries have formal preparation in education. The quality of educators is an
important factor affecting the quality of graduates from midwifery programmes. Well-prepared
midwifery educators can provide quality education within an enabling environment including
adequate resources, policy and governance.
Adopting these core competencies can provide a strong basis for a significant improvement in
the quality of care for pregnant women, mothers and newborns. The core competencies can be
used to develop innovative curriculum contents and teaching approaches, with strong effective
links between theory and midwifery practice.