2026 Data (Information)

DATA: "I am proud to be a midwife because I save a lot of lives": Survey and interviews with graduates of International Medical Corps’ midwifery education program in South Sudan

Casey, Sara E.

Background: South Sudan has one of the highest maternal mortality ratios in the world, driven in part by an underfunded health system and a shortage of trained health workers. Skilled birth attendants are essential to reducing maternal mortality. International Medical Corps supports competency-based midwifery education in three schools in South Sudan, offering a 2.5-year certificate and a 3-year diploma aligned with international standards for midwifery practice. This mixed methods evaluation aimed to assess the strengths and challenges of the midwifery education program to inform program improvement.

Methods: A survey was conducted with 314 graduates, supplemented by in-depth interviews (n=15) and daily task diaries (n=21), collected from subsets of survey respondents.

Results: Most graduates (76.4%) were currently working as midwives, with nearly half (47.5%) based in rural areas. They reported high satisfaction with their training, felt largely prepared for their roles, and expressed pride in their profession. Graduates felt most competent in providing antenatal care, safe childbirth services and short-acting contraceptives, and least competent providing prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and long-acting reversible contraceptives. Commonly reported challenges included inadequate infrastructure and insecurity.

Conclusions: These findings demonstrate how competency-based education programs can rapidly expand the number of skilled midwives in fragile settings, thus empowering women and couples to exercise their reproductive rights. Strong partnerships among ministries of health and partners are essential to address challenges, support midwives’ professional development and strengthen health systems, while upholding women’s rights to good quality, respectful SRH care.