Humanitarian and Climate Change

Each year, International Day of the Midwife (IDM) offers the global community an opportunity to reflect on the essential contributions midwives make. This year’s theme, Midwives: Critical in Every Crisis, highlights their vital role when disasters, conflicts and displacement disrupt lives. As health systems break down, midwives often become the only health providers communities can access, safeguarding sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn and adolescent health (SRMNAH). They offer lifesaving services while upholding dignity and protecting rights in the most challenging circumstances. 

Midwives in Kenya are now equipped to lead advocacy efforts and climate action to improve maternal and newborn health outcomes.

Midwives in Somalia and Nigeria deliver care amid crisis, facing danger, stigma, and under-resourcing with resilience, dedication, and hope.

Midwives in Japan play a vital role in disaster response, ensuring essential care for women and newborns during every crisis phase.

Behind the Camera highlights Fabeha Monir’s powerful lens on midwives, capturing their resilience and impact in humanitarian settings worldwide.

Haitian midwives provide life-saving SRMNAH services, ensuring care, dignity, and security for women and girls amid the ongoing humanitarian crisis.

Midwives' voices shaped our new report, Interlocked: Midwives and the Climate Crisis, which highlights how midwives are already responding to the health impacts of climate disasters like floods, wildfires, and extreme heat—and why they must be included in climate action plans.

A report based on midwives’ experiences, highlighting their vital role in addressing climate challenges and building resilient, sustainable health systems.

In the face of a devastating earthquake, midwives from the Association Marocaine des Sages-Femmes (AMSF), supported by ICM, stepped up to provide critical care and support. Learn more about their medical caravans.

Haitian midwife Sara Jean shares her personal experiences of pregnancy and caregiving during Haiti’s political crisis, highlighting the importance of mental health support for midwives.

In February 2024, ICM hired award winning filmmaker Lynzy Billings to visit 11 hospitals across the West Bank. We documented the struggles midwives endure, working long shifts and resisting exhaustion as they try to support every woman who needs them.