Support the Midwives that Help Mothers and Babies in Bangladesh Survive and Thrive
Midwives in Bangladesh work in challenging conditions, with high maternal mortality and instability making it difficult for them to provide care. Bangladesh is also home to Cox’s Bazaar, the world’s largest refugee camp, where many midwives work every day. In places like these, midwives provide more than just care to women, girls and newborns – they provide support to help them navigate the difficulties of displacement and poverty, prevent sexual violence, and provide lifechanging health services.
The demand for midwives’ care in places like Cox’s Bazaar is overwhelming, and the resources are limited. Midwives work very day in clinics and open shelters, often facing shortages of essential supplies when women and girls need them most.
Your Donation Makes a Difference
The With Women Charity, in partnership with the International Confederation of Midwives, has launched a holiday campaign to support midwives working in challenging areas of Bangladesh. Our goal is to raise €6,000 to provide midwives with field kits containing locally-sourced instruments, antiseptics, gloves and newborn essentials.
Each kit gives midwives the resources they need to deliver quality care, even in settings without reliable electricity or running water.
WithWomen would like to pay special tribute to its first-ever donor, Wilhelmenia ‘Mieke’ Johanna Meijer.
Mieke was a Dutch midwife, educator and a passionate advocate of pregnancy and childbirth as a natural life event with midwives as the best-possible care providers for birthing women. Throughout her career, Mieke defended and promoted the professional autonomy of midwives, leading a charge in the 1970s to oppose the Dutch government’s decision to prohibit the direct entry midwifery education route to midwifery registration, leaving only a post-nursing route to becoming a midwife. Beyond this successful campaign, Mieke contributed to midwifery in her home country in many ways, serving terms as a Board Member and Advisor to the Board with the Dutch Organisation of Midwives (later becoming the Royal Dutch Organisation of Midwives – KNOV). Mieke also encouraged her younger colleagues to join the KNOV and unite at the national and international levels.
On April 5, 2019, Mieke passed away at the age of 95.5, continuing to attend midwives’ meetings until the end. According to friends and family, Mieke would have been proud to be WithWomen’s first donor, thereby promoting normal birth and the autonomous role of midwives. Her generous contribution will contribute to WithWomen’s work to strengthen midwife-led care for all women.