International Day of the Midwife 2026 Toolkit Launch

As we prepare to celebrate the International Day of the Midwife (#IDM2026) on 5 May, ICM is proud to launch the IDM 2026 Digital Toolkit.

This year’s theme, One Million More Midwives, is clear and urgent. The world is short nearly one million midwives. Without them, women, gender diverse people and newborns are left without the essential sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn and adolescent health services they need.

IDM 2026 is our opportunity to put the need for more midwives into everyone’s minds and onto decision-makers’ agendas. It is our moment to mobilise globally and reach our goal of one million petition signatures calling for one million more midwives.

We cannot do this without you.

What’s Inside the IDM 2026 Toolkit

This year’s toolkit is designed to help you advocate, mobilise, and collect petition signatures to secure sustained investment to grow and strengthen the midwifery workforce in your community and country. It includes:

Social Media Cards on Key Topics – Shareable graphics positioning one million more midwives as the solution to urgent global health challenges, such as maternal mortality, newborn survival, sexual and reproductive care, unnecessary interventions, breastfeeding and humanitarian settings. You can download the cards as they are or edit the templates to adapt the data, language and examples to your local context and your organisation’s strategic priorities.

For example, one of our global cards reads:

Every two minutes, a woman dies from causes linked to pregnancy or childbirth.

One Million More Midwives can change that.

You can edit these templates to reflect your local context. For example:

In Somalia, 563 women die for every 100,000 births.

With more midwives, we could change that.

This makes the campaign stronger, more relevant, and more powerful at national level. You can explore the Midwives’ Data Hub to find country-specific data to strengthen your messages and materials.

Printable Posters and Visual Assets – Ready-to-use materials to promote IDM, the theme and the petition in your community.

Illustration Elements – Download all the incredible tiles used to brand the One Million More petition and use them to create your own IDM materials and push for midwives in your country.

New This Year: A Press Release Template

For the first time ever, the toolkit includes a press release template.

Local media can help us reach the general public, increase awareness around IDM, the work of midwives and the need for more. We encourage you to:

• Edit the press release to fit your national context.
• Add local data and quotes from your association.
• Identify newspapers, radio stations, and online outlets that cover maternal health, women’s health, or midwifery.
• Search for the relevant journalist or news desk email address.
• Send your press release weeks ahead of IDM so they can plan coverage.

This is a simple and highly impactful way to ensure your country understands the need for more midwives. It is also an opportunity to raise awareness of your association and its work. More detailed instructions and practical tips can be found within the press release template in the toolkit.

How to Use the Toolkit

We encourage you to:

• Download and share the key messages and visuals.
• Adapt and translate the materials for your local audience.
• Promote and collect signatures for the One Million More petition.
• Engage your community, partners, and policymakers.

Every post, every article, every conversation, and every signature brings us closer to one million.

Join the Global IDM Celebration

ICM will host an action-packed one-hour global event on 5 May so we can celebrate IDM together. Join us to explore the urgent need for one million more midwives and the actions being taken around the world to make it happen.

We also invite you to submit your IDM events to our website. By doing so, you help us show the world the many ways midwives are celebrating and advocating on International Day of the Midwife, and we help you get more people to know about your event.

Together, we can make 2026 the year the world understands what is at stake for the health of millions of women and newborns. We want them to thrive, not just survive.