DILI 9 may 2022, (TATOLI)- The president of the Association of Midwives in Timor-Leste, Lidia Gomes, acknowledged the lack of organization of human resources (midwifery) contributing to maternal and infant mortality.
Ms. Gomes said that limited and lack of organization of human resources are the main problems faced by APTL, therefore APTL recommends proper allocation of human resources (midwifery) especially in remote areas to reduce infant mortality and the level of materiality.
“APTL recommends allocating midwives based on their village of origin, this is because geographically they know about the area they cover and the situation or conditions in their village,” She said.
According to Lidia, the Ministry of Health should provide capacity training for new midwives before assigning them to work in remote areas to ensure the employment of new midwives in remote areas.
“Increasing the capacity of new midwives is important to increase their knowledge about the delivery process, besides that, it is also important to provide complete delivery equipment for them to do their work,”
According to Gomes, to increase the number of midwives and improve education from diploma to undergraduate, the Ministry of Health agreed to support midwifery students studying at UNTL to complete education levels from diploma to bachelor’s degree.
“Every year UNTL admits 90 students studying at the National University of Timor-Leste (UNTL), a small number due to lack of facilities,”
“The Ministry of Health and the APTL also hope that in the future there will be no more midwives who graduate with one or three diplomas but should complete undergraduate education to guarantee an increase in services at the community level and a decrease in the birth rate,”
So far, the agreement between the Ministry of Health and UNTL has produced 300 midwives from the UNTL.
Journalist: José Belarmino De Sá
Editor: Nelia Borges
