Elizabeth (Zab) Franklin

Elizabeth (Zab) Franklin is a midwife advisor at the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) in The Hague, Netherlands.  As part of ICM’s midwives’ team, Zab provides professional and technical midwifery expertise and contributes to the development and implementation of global strategies to improve psychological and physical outcomes for mothers and newborns.

Prior to joining ICM in 2024, Zab accumulated 30 years of experience as a practising midwife. Zab trained as a midwife in her home country New Zealand where she worked as a continuity of care midwife. Zab has also worked in the UK, Saudi-Arabia and Sweden and her experience spans a variety of models of care and settings.  Zab has been a lactation consultant (IBCLC) since 2005. Alongside caring for women, newborns and their families, she has spent 15 years in in-service education and project leadership, focused on increasing quality of care across the continuum of the midwifery scope of practice. She holds an MA from the University of West Sweden on person-centered healthcare with a focus on intercultural mediation.

Zab splits her time between The Hague and the west coast of Sweden with trips to New Zealand when possible. In her free time, she is most often found sea kayaking, walking and hanging out with friends.

Based In: The Netherlands
Home Country: New Zealand
Languages: English and Swedish