Every year, International Day of the Midwife is marked on the 5th May in honour of the work of midwives and to promote awareness about importance of providing crucial care to mothers and their new-borns. The day gives the local community a chance to recognise midwives efforts towards making the world a better place.

Today, the GHA’s midwives are hosting a stand in Cathedral Square from 10am to 2pm where they will be celebrating this year’s theme by looking at their past, present and future.

This year’s theme of ‘100 Years of Progress’ highlights the advancements in medicine and how the role of the midwife has changed so much since the beginning of the 1900’s.

This also ties in with Gibraltar’s history as the first maternity ward was officially opened 100 years ago in 1922. However, the board of registered midwives was created before then in 1907, just five years after one was established in the UK.

The first centralized birth register was created in 1954, where there are records of Emily Mackintosh, Gibraltar’s first local UK trained midwife and whom the current maternity ward is named after. A lot of progress and investment has been made since then at training local staff and now the majority of the midwifery cohort is local.

Clinical Nurse Manager, Fiona McCoubrey, said: “Today is important because it gives us a chance to appreciate the role of midwives in our community. The responsibility of a midwife starts at the initial 10-week appointment and we see women through to Labour and beyond. We are there to care for mothers and their new-borns and to assist with any query or doubt. The role of the midwife transcends the clinical responsibilities to that of understanding the community we serve and the needs of its people”.

The Director General, Professor Patrick Geoghegan OBE, said: “I am very proud of our midwifery services who always rise to the challenge day and night, 7 days a week, 365 days a year to ensure babies are delivered safely and parents are supported and cared for at a very important time of their lives”.

ENDS