Training for Traditional Midwives, Guna Yala-Panama, May 2024

The Directorate of Indigenous Health Affairs of the Ministry of Health of Panama is developing a process of strengthening competencies for Empirical Midwives in the indigenous areas of the country, with the objective of reducing maternal and infant mortality. In coordination with the traditional authorities of all the country’s indigenous territories and comarcas, the health personnel of the Health Regions and strategic partners such as the World Bank, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO/WHO), the theoretical and practical contents of the “Midwife Facilitator’s Manual” have been updated.

Training workshops have been carried out focused on the development of competencies, so that midwives can attend births with better skills and incorporate intercultural elements in the process.

Women in indigenous communities with less access to health services will have trained empirical midwives, equipped and linked to the health system, with what is needed to attend imminent births and provide initial care for major obstetric complications. These midwives will be able to provide basic care while patients are referred or transferred to health facilities where they will receive the essential obstetric care they need.

See more in: https://www.minsa.gob.pa/direccion/direccion-de-asuntos-sanitarios-indigenas