Introducing...

Victoria Parsa

Victoria was born in Kabul to a Nooristani mother and a Tajik father. During Taliban times she lived in Pakistan with her family. After hearing about the deaths of two of her aunts in childbirth, at age nine Victoria decided that she wanted to be a midwife. She finished her midwifery studies in 2002 and has worked with CURE International Hospital in Kabul since 2004, first as a staff midwife in the Family Health Center, then as midwifery supervisor at the hospital, and now as CURE's Head of Midwifery.

Victoria became an officer in the Afghan Midwives Association in 2006. Last year she attended a conference in Bangladesh as an AMA representative. She is grateful for the ways AMA has helped raise the profile of midwives in the country, strengthening their skills and increasing respect for their work.

She likes all kinds of music and is constantly on the hunt for new OB/GYN books in Farsi. She would like to get out more, but faces the challenge of living among very conservative, uneducated people who frown on women going out of the home. While her children now go to school in a tent with no chairs and no desks, she hopes that her daughters will become midwives and her son will grow up to be a surgeon in a rebuilt, beautiful Afghanistan.

Afghan Midwives on CNN

Afghan Midwives Association(AMA) report about AMA annual congress in ireport/CNN.

See pictures and brief report on the CNN ireport website.

Celebrate the International Day of the Midwife on May 5^th.

For more information: Contact the Afghan Midwives Association, Pashtoon Azfar, President, ama_afg@yahoo.com

Afghan Midwives Association Beginnings

The Afghan Midwives Association (AMA) was formed May 3, 2005 at an organizational meeting of 80 Afghan midwives from throughout the country. The Rules of the Association were approved and officers were elected to lead the new group. Over the next two days over 200 Afghan and international midwives assembled in Kabul for the first Afghan Midwifery Congress. Student midwives conducted a poster contest on saving mother’s lives. The Congress ended with the celebration of the International Day of the Midwife. The initiation of the association was facilitated by support from USAID ACCESS program.

“The Afghan Midwives Association aims to promote and strengthen the midwifery profession and the role of the midwife to ensure the wellbeing of the women and families in Afghanistan….”

Rules of the Afghan Midwives Association

The AMA has developed several objectives to reach their goal. The association will

Ø Promote excellence in practice through leadership, continuing education, professional accountability, and standards development.

Ø Work within the International Confederation of Midwives Code of Ethics.

Ø Increase respect for midwives knowledge, skills and experience with other health professionals including medical colleagues.

Ø Collaborate with other health professionals and agencies to provide interventions that reduce maternal mortality and morbidity.

Ø Establish representatives in each province to identify and resolve midwifery issues on local level.

Ø Strengthen and advance the role of the midwife as a skilled care attendant.

Ø Advise and participate with the MOPH in health policy planning and the development of policies that support midwifery practice.

Ø Seek partnership on safe motherhood activities with other midwifery associations on an international level.

During the summer of 2005 Afghan midwives participated in international midwifery meetings: The annual meeting of the American College of Nurse-Midwives in Washington, DC and the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM). At both meetings the midwives provided presentations on midwifery and maternal health in Afghanistan.

On November 2005, the AMA was accepted as a member of the International Confederation of Midwives.