Quality Midwifery Care in the Midst of Crisis: Midwifery Capacity Building Strategy for Northern Syria (2017-2021)

In areas of Syria reachable though cross-border operations from Turkey, women and girls experience exacerbated restrictions on freedom of movement, due to lack of security but also increasingly conservative gender norms, coupled with early marriage and lack of access to family planning. All of these inter-related factors impact on the women’s reproductive health needs, health seeking behaviour and access to health services, ultimately negatively impacting maternal and neonatal health.

At the same time, the health system is seriously challenged and unsuited to the situation of on-going conflict whereby caesarean sections have become commonplace due to ‘safety and rapid execution of surgical techniques’. The pre-war Syrian health system was highly specialized, facility-based and centralized, which did not support autonomous normal Midwifery care in either a facility or the community. In fact, many Midwives themselves were unaware of the full range of skills possible under the core competencies of Midwifery practice.

To compensate for the loss of dedicated, qualified maternal health care providers, in particular those with Midwifery competencies, there is a great need of a Midwifery capacity building strategy which will contribute to the rapid availability of health based human resources.