Samdech Kittiprittpundit Bun Rany Hun Sen, President of the Cambodian Red Cross, has lauded midwives’ contribution to Cambodia’s mother and child health achievements.
The Cambodia’s First Lady expressed the appreciation in her open letter to mark the International Day of the Midwife 2022, nationally themed ‘Investing in midwives will strengthen the primary health care system and provide pathway of universal health coverage’ which falls today, May 5.
She acknowledged that despite the COVID-19 threat, the midwives have ensured the continuity of their regular services, with remarkable achievements, and thanked all concerned stakeholders for their indispensable contribution.
Cambodia’s maternal mortality rate dropped noticeably to 141 among 100,000 live births in 2019, from 170 in 2014, she underlined.
The number of birth delivery attended by skilled midwives and birth deliveries at the local health posts and centres increased to 89 percent in 2020.
In the letter, Samdech Kittiprittpundit Bun Rany Hun Sen also called on more awareness among future brides and grooms about reproductive health and prevention of communicable diseases, particularly from mother to child.
She encouraged timely and accessible services for pregnancy, birth deliveries, post-delivery care, birth spacing and other midwife-related supports.
The First Lady ended her letter with reminders to all pregnant women to have regular health check, deliver at health centres or referral hospitals, access post-delivery care, and secure sufficient vaccinations for their new-borns.
Source: Agence Kampuchea Press