Midwifery at the University of British Columbia

Students for Global Citizenship

The Midwifery Education program at UBC has created a global midwifery placement option for students. Midwifery has developed international relationships in Mexico, Pakistan, Holland, Uganda and Zambia.  A midwifery faculty member and a family physician accompany the students for part of their practicum and then local midwives, nurses and physicians continue supervision. 

In these placements students attend normal births and experience the ways that health care workers deal with normal and difficult births in a low-resource setting. These skills are especially relevant to student midwives are they prepare to respond to the critical shortage of skilled maternity providers in rural and remote areas of BC.  In exchange, students and faculty share ways of practice taught at UBC with the global midwifery community.

The Global Midwifery rotation lasts 6 to 8 weeks and takes place at the end of the 3rd year of midwifery education. Students return energized by their global experience and have a deeper understanding about women's health issues, women's rights and birthing practices, and with new friendships across borders.  Midwifery faculty are currently developing similar clinical rotations in Nepal and India.

Uganda and Zambia

Maternal mortality is high in both rural Zambia and Uganda. Over 725 per 100, 000 women die in childbirth.  There are few trained attendants to assist women in childbirth, and transportation problems as well as social customs prevent many women from attending health centres and hospitals for deliveries.  Those who attend hospitals for delivery often have risk factors and complications rarely seen in Canadian midwifery practice.

Students and faculty take donations of gloves, delivery instruments, medication to prevent and treat hemorrhage, academic articles and books on continuing education topics.  Midwifery faculty work in collaboration with local staff to present continuing education topics on maternity subjects requested by the local nurse-midwife managers and medical directors.  This year we are raising funds to buy supplies for maternity wards and to bring a Ugandan Midwife to BC for an educational visit.