Birth & Midwifery in Pakistan
RESOURCES FOR PARENTS AND PRACTITIONERS

Connect with many more midwives and birth enthusiasts from around the world by joining IAM, the International Alliance of Midwives!

Midwifery Today Country Contact

Imtiaz Kamal and Asma Zubair

Imtiaz Kamal, known as Pakistan's grandmother of midwifery, directs her efforts to promoting the midwifery profession in Pakistan. Imtiaz has worked with WHO as a midwife consultant, developing midwifery curriculum, training midwives and midwifery teachers and developing teaching and learning materials for the study of midwifery. She is also secretary general of the National Committee for Maternal Health (NCMH), vice president of the Maternity and Child Welfare Association of Pakistan (MCWAP) and president of MCWAP's Sindh Chapter.

Imtiaz has worked as a midwife in Pakistan for 50 years and says that she has lead a one-woman crusade for the promotion of midwifery as a modality separate from nursing, which is only now beginning to show fruit. Currently she is working to develop regulatory mechanisms for the practice of midwifery in Pakistan as none have existed to date. She is also working on the development of a curriculum for domiciliary midwives. Imtiaz received her midwifery training in the UK and pursued a master's degree from Columbia University in New York. She has worked in more than 50 countries through various UN organizations in the field of maternal and child health.

Asma Zubair lives near Lahore, Pakistan. She is a student nurse in her fourth (final) year, being trained in midwifery. Asma tells us: "I have passion to be expert at midwifery. Actually, Midwifery Today has been an inspiration for me. You do not know but it has helped me a great deal. It would be a great pleasure for me if I could do something for the mothers and babies of our world."

To contact Imtiaz Kamal, Asma Zubair or any other Midwifery Today Country Contact, write to the IAM administrator.

Birth/Midwifery

• Midwifery Association of Pakistan—e-mail address: midwifepak@yahoo.com "We want people from all walks of life to support Midwifery Association of Pakistan because mothers cannot be saved by midwives alone. We believe that maternal and neonatal deaths are not a medical problem only. Also, for the midwives to work in a community, they need all kinds of support and linkages. We want our membership to reflect that. Only midwives will be full-fledged voting members of MAP because it is a professional organisation of midwives. People from other walks of life may work on different committees and help and guide the organisation."—Imtiaz Kamal