Glasgow Expecting Biggest International Midwife Conference in 20 Years
The biggest international gathering of midwives for 20 years takes place in Glasgow next week.
More than 3,500 midwives will attend the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) conference from 80 countries as varied as Malawi, Armenia, Latvia, Chile, Japan, the United States, Iceland, Haiti, Australia and Pakistan.
In a spectacular opening ceremony at the Scottish Exhibition + Conference Centre (SECC) at 3pm on Sunday (June 1), more than 300 dancers, musicians, singers and actors will perform before the midwives, who will all be dressed in their national costumes.
The ceremony involves the Scottish Youth Theatre presenting the flags of the 80 nations, and there will be performances from the 60 piece Orchestra of Scottish Opera, singers from Scottish Opera, the McCutcheon Irish dancers, the Cavern Beatles from Liverpool, a Welsh Choir, and the Nielston Pipe Band.
The Princess Royal, Princess Anne, will open the scientific part of the five day conference – which will generate £6.1 million for Glasgow - and present Save the Children awards to midwives on Monday.
Sarah Brown, the wife of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, will be among the keynote speakers on Tuesday (June 3).
Mrs Brown will be speaking on behalf of the White Ribbon Alliance (WRA) UK. WRA is a coalition of individuals and organisations in 91 countries, that promotes awareness of the need to make pregnancy and childbirth safe for women and newborns. This work is related to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5, which aim to reduce child mortality and improve maternal health across the world.
ICM represents half a million midwives from 80 countries worldwide. One woman dies every minute of every day as a result of pregnancy or childbirth, and ICM campaigns to reduce the level of maternal and baby deaths.
As well as identifying and supporting best midwifery practice globally, it promotes public health issues such as the provision of clean water, better nutrition, and disease prevention.
Steven Purcell, the Leader of Glasgow City Council and Chair of Glasgow City Marketing Bureau (GCMB), is urging Glaswegians to make the international visitors feel at home.
“Midwives do a wonderful job, and it is a real pleasure to welcome so many of them from around the world to Glasgow,” he said.
“Most of them will never have been here before, and I am sure everyone will give them a warm and friendly welcome so that they take home happy memories of the city.”
The conference, which is held every three years, has previously been hosted in Vienna and Brisbane, and in 2011, it moves to Durban.
Since 2000, the Glasgow Conference Ambassador Programme, which is run by Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, has offered the Royal College of Midwives a range of assistance, from help with bidding for the conference through to hotel bookings, site meetings and marketing support.
In 2002 in Vienna, Glasgow beat Buenos Aires and Montreal to host the 2008 ICM conference.
Dame Karlene Davis, president of the ICM, said: “The Royal College of Midwives won the bid to host the 28th ICM Congress in Glasgow with support from the Glasgow City Marketing Bureau. Their support and guidance made all the difference to our winning presentation, and since we won the conference, the team at GCMB have worked really closely with us to help make this conference a success.
“This conference is a wonderful opportunity for midwives from many different countries and cultures to come together and share experiences and practice. However, this is not just a talking shop. Midwives will leave the conference with new ideas and different perspectives so that they can return home and give women and babies in their home countries even better care.”
In 2007-08, the Convention Bureau at GCMB, secured conference sales of £151 million – representing 543,000 delegate days. Sales generated through the Ambassador Programme – an influential network managed by GCMB of more than 2,000 people from the local academic, scientific, medical and business communities - were worth £35 million.
Molly Doheny, head of the Convention Bureau at GCMB, said: “The Convention Bureau has worked hard with the Royal College of Midwives to bring this extremely prestigious international conference to Glasgow.
“We know how valuable conferences are to our economy, which is why we put in so much effort to attract them to the city. I am delighted that eight years on from our first approach, Glasgow is finally welcoming the ICM to the city.”
Other speakers at the conference on Monday include Princess Muna, the mother of the King of Jordan, who is World Health Organisation patron in the Mediterranean.
A group of Malawian midwives will be spending a week after the conference visiting hospitals in Scotland as guest of the Royal College of Midwives.
Among the subjects that will be discussed during the conference are: female genital mutilation; educating fathers beyond the waiting room; breastfeeding; reducing maternal deaths in sub-Saharan Africa; maternity care in rural Scotland; supporting pregnant women with learning difficulties; midwifery care for HIV positive women; the psychological effects on women of infertility; first-time mothers’ experiences of caring for their new babies; and emergency caesarean sections.
Further information:
Colin Beesley, Press Officer - Royal College of Midwives
Colin Beesley, Press Officer - Royal College of Midwives
Email: pressofficer@rcm.org.uk; Tel: 0207 312 3432/3433; Mob: 0770 3321576
(or)
Caroline Gray, PR Manager – Glasgow City Marketing Bureau
Email: caroline.gray@seeglasgow.com; Tel: 0141 566 0832
Notes to editors:
1. The ICM Triennial Conference is an international meeting that is held every three years. It was last hosted in Brisbane, Australia, in 2005.
For more information, visit http://www.midwives2008.org/home.htm
2. The International Confederation of Midwives represent more than 93 organisations in more than 79 countries and campaigns globally to secure women’s access to midwifery care before, during and after childbirth. For further information, please visit http://www.internationalmidwives.org/
3. For more information on the Royal College of Midwives, see www.rcm.org.uk
4. To find out more about the Glasgow Conference Ambassador Programme, please visit http://www.seeglasgow.com/convention-bureau/ambassadors/what-is-an-ambassador