Prof Jacqueline Dunkley Bent Advocating Takes Courage

Podcast – Women in Leadership

Advocating for women before during and after birth is the life's work of Prof Jacqueline Dunkley Bent OBE Chief Midwife with ICM International Confederation of Midwives. She used to work for the NHS now she is working at a global level where the need is as great as ever. It takes takes courage to face those who hold the levers of power in society, politically and sometimes even within a family or a relationship. Women are at their most vulnerable when giving birth. While the ideal image we have of the pregnant mother is of the women surrounded by loving family or partner in a safe, high-tech hospital, for very many women around the world, this is far from the norm. Over 287,000 women die worldwide in the period just before during or soon after delivery and that was from a 2020 statistic*. Many because they are in third world countries or war-torn places where standards of midwifery are not high up the agenda if they exist at all. Prof Dunkley Bents mission is to have the best medical and midwife care available to every woman. "This is why health systems, ministries, governments, decision makers, policy makers, strategists, people in power, must pay attention to how we can move the dial on on perinatal mortality, that's stillbirth and death within the first 28 days of life, and how we can move the dial on maternal death so that all women have the same maternity outcomes and experiences as those who have the best." These maternal deaths she believes are a violation of human rights and must be taken seriously.