At the request of the Midwifery Office of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education in the Islamic Republic of Iran and in an attempt to promote natural delivery and safe motherhood through modern communications and advocacy methods, UNFPA invited two international consultants specialized in communications and advocacy to offer their technical expertise to a selected number of midwives from different provinces of Iran in two sets of three-day workshops.

Natural delivery is proven to be the better method for women particularly those planning to have more than one child. The high rate of caesarean sections (45.55%) is one of the current challenges faced by the health system of the Islamic Republic of Iran. 

One of the eight major goals of the Health Overhaul Plan, recently introduced by MOHME, is to reduce the number of C-Sections in the country and to maintain Iran’s outstanding achievements in lowering maternal mortality. In this regard UNFPA has been working with the midwifery office of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MOMHE) to re-establish physiological birth in Iranian hospitals and to up-skill obstetricians and midwives in supporting and promoting normal, natural birth through a project on midwifery-led care.

Through new models and techniques of communications and advocacy, midwives will be able to better communicate appropriate information to pregnant mothers to further advocate for natural delivery and therefore reduce maternal mortality and improve mother and child health. 

Benefiting from the presence of the two international consultants, UNFPA took the opportunity and invited its implementing partners to a half-a-day workshop to further strengthen national capacity in communications and advocacy, as a knowledge-sharing platform to exchange views on communications and advocacy methods. The goal was to master the necessary skills to draft original and tailored communication plans, taking into consideration cultural and religious values.