Responding to Humanitarian Crises: Midwifery Care in Bangladesh

Abstract

Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) is often a neglected topic of intervention in humanitarian crises despite its wide-ranging impact on women and girls' well-being. Increasing frequency of climate-induced natural disasters calls for an urgent need to identify innovative practices for sustainable and effective humanitarian preparedness and response to ensure SRHR of affected populations. One such innovation is the empowerment of midwives in disaster response program planning and implementation. This article describes how midwives deployed to rural primary health centers provided quality SRHR services, particularly for labor and birth assistance and initial management of perinatal emergencies and referral in the aftermath of the 2022 flooding in northern and northeastern Bangladesh. Supportive supervision from physicians, adequate health care logistics and supplies, and administrative support from local health authorities created an enabling environment for the midwives. Community engagement through volunteers helped build rapport with residents and allowed patients to navigate health services. Deploying midwives as a response to climate-induced natural disaster was successful in establishing quality SRHR services. Future recommendations include systematically deploying midwives in health centers closest to the communities in locations vulnerable to climate change as part of routine health service delivery. This innovative approach clearly demonstrated that utilization of midwives during and after natural disasters could build community and health system resilience to climate change.

Keywords: climate/environmental health; community health; global health/international; health policy; midwifery workforce; sexual and reproductive health and rights.