The Nordic midwifery conference 2007: 'Midwives guarding the future': Jaana Beversdorf,...

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'Midwives guarding the future' was the theme of the Nordic Midwifery Congress held 4-6 May this year in Turku, Finland. Over 500 participants from the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden), Estonia, England and Scotland listened to keynote lectures

Prior to the Congress, the annual meeting of the board of the Nordic Midwives' Association (Nordiska Jordemorforbundet--NJF) was held in Turku on 2-3 May. Hildur Kristjansdottir from Iceland was chosen as the new President of the Association. The President of the Nordic Midwives' Association during 2000-2007 was Asta von Frenckell from Finland. She was also the President of the Nordic Midwifery Congress.

The main themes of the Congress were questions concerning medicalisation of childbirth, ethics in midwifery and the aim to move towards evidence-based care. The message of the congress was that skilled midwives are safeguarding the future.

The Congress Scientific Committee received well over 100 abstracts. They were evaluated by using criteria such as: the relevance and topicality of the study for midwifery; how the study was carried out methodologically; the novelty value of the results; the clinical relevance of the results; and the clarity and readability of the abstract.

The final Congress programme included a total of 68 oral presentations in 20 parallel sessions. The themes of the oral presentation sessions varied from 'the professional self-image of midwifery students' through 'the self-monitoring of fetal movements by expectant mothers' to 'father-infant physical contact after a caesarean section'. There was also a poster exhibition of 23 posters with themes varying from 'history of midwifery' to 'experiences in breast-feeding'. Some topics from the oral presentations or from the keynote lectures were further discussed in five workshops. Throughout the Congress, the spirit among the participants was extremely enthusiastic and empowering.

The invited keynote speakers of the congress were Dr Marianne Mead and Professor Shirley R Jones from England, Dr Ann-Kristin Sandin-Bojo from Sweden, and Professor Katri Vehvilainen-Julkunen and PhD-student Johanna Sarlio from Finland.

Medicalisation of childbirth

Dr Marianne Mead and her team had conducted a study in the UK to test the hypothesis that midwives working in maternity units with a high intervention rate might have a better perception of intrapartum risk than midwives working in lower-intervention units.

This study was repeated in Germany, Luxembourg and in four Nordic countries. Dr Mead and her team found strong evidence of national midwifery cultures, but also evidence that specific aspects of each culture are not necessarily associated with the maternal or perinatal outcomes of labour. However, perceptions of risk may exert more influence on the joint midwifery and obstetric decision-making for medical interventions in labour.

Dr Ann-Kristin Sandin-Bojo presented the results of her research in Swedish maternity clinics where a programme to follow the WHO recommendations was implemented. According to WHO recommendations, the goal of a midwife's work is to ensure the health of the mother and the child while intervening with the birthing as little as possible.

Ethics in midwifery

In her keynote lecture, Professor Shirley R Jones stated that each person's moral code is different. Therefore, midwives should not practise according to their conscience alone. Professor Jones believes that it is important to study applied ethics in midwifery. In this way all midwives should be able to work within a framework that is acceptable to most practitioners and clients, while managing to retain a reasonable level of individuality.

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Professor Katri Vehvilainen-Julkunen addressed midwifery as a societal task. In the 17th century, Ulrika Eleonora, Queen of Sweden and Finland--a mother of six children--initiated midwifery training in order to decrease the mortality rate of newborns and birthing mothers. Professor Vehvilainen-Julkunen stated that the education and work of midwives has had a strong effect on the health and well-being of women and children across the world.

Men's participation in family planing in rural areas of Malawi was the theme of the keynote lecture by PhD-student Johanna Sarlio. In a family planning and sexual health project in rural Malawi, it was observed that men were interested in family planning, but due to the strong division of male and female areas, men lack fundamental information in order to be able to make decisions.

During the Congress, on May 5--the International Day of the Midwife--the Finnish Midwifery Association spoke out nationally, spreading the message that antenatal health care clinics in Finland should have workers who are specialists in sexual and reproductive health matters, in other words, midwives. Practices vary greatly even in the Nordic countries. In Finland most midwives work in the maternity hospitals and very few midwives work in antenatal health care clinics.

As always, organising a congress of this scale requires several years' work by a large group of professionals. The Congress work-group was headed by Asta von Frenckell, the President of the Nordic Midwives Association and of the Turku NJF Congress. The Chairperson of the Congress Scientific Committee was Dr Hanna-Leena Melender. The Presidents of The Federation of Finnish Midwives during this time were Merja Kumpula and Terhi Virtanen.

The Finnish team wishes all the best for the next Nordic Midwifery Congress, which will be held in Denmark in 2010.