December 2021: The end of another eventful year.

Abstract

We are coming to the end of yet another eventful year. COVID-19 dominated the global headlines and our lives for the second year in a row. Both the pandemic and various lockdowns instigated by governments across the globe have affected midwives, pregnant women, new others with their babies and their families. Long before the COVID-19 pandemic we needed more midwives, and we still do not have enough midwives. We would like to remind our readers that midwives and nurses represent over 50% of the current global shortage of health workers [1]. All the more reason to ensure that we help student midwives and midwives to enjoy their calling, and to do their job well. Employing organisations, be it hospitals, clinics, universities, health service providers (private or government) must offer institutional supports to give midwives a good experience in their place of work [3]. In the final issue of 2021, we also think it is important to highlight the difficult plight of fellow midwives in Afghanistan, whose roles as mothers, daughters, women, and midwives has been made much more difficult and challenging in current economic situation. This issue of “Journal of Asian Midwives” has several firsts. We publish the first ever book review in the journal. The book under review is called “Global midwifery: Principles, Policy and Practice”. [3] The book review is written by the Founder President of the Midwifery Society of Nepal, Prof. Kiran Bajracharya. In this edition we cover range of different Asian countries. We proudly announce the first paper ever published in the “Journal of Asian Midwives” on the mountain country of Bhutan: ‘An assessment of antenatal care received by Bhutanese women: A retrospective review of maternal and child health handbooks’. In Pakistan, two important studies in the Masters’ programme took place and these were presented in late December. The first one by Anila Muhammad Aman was a study “Exploring Experiences of Pregnant Women/ Maternal Care during the Covid-19 Pandemic Lockdown in a Remote Area of Pakistan”, whilst the second one by Samia Nasim focused on “Breastfeeding experiences of COID-19 positive mothers”. Both studies highlighted the importance of listening to women’s voices. We like to thank Ms Kiran Mubeen for her editorial assistance. We welcome her to our editorial team as our newly appointed Associate Editor, she will be with us producing this and many more future issues of the “Journal of Asian Midwives”. We are extremely grateful to all reviewers who are giving us their voluntary time and services to help improve midwifery and maternity care in often deprived regions. Finally, we also want to express our gratitude to both Aga Khan University (AKU) Libraries and AKU School of Nursing and Midwifery for hosting our journal online through AKU Institutional Repository e-Commons.