Songea — SAFE motherhood stakeholders have urged the government to reintroduce midwifery courses in selection forms to attract more Form Four and Form Six leavers to join the profession.

The move aims at ensuring an increased number of midwives to at least get nearer to the World Health Organization recommended ratio of 1:6 from the current 1:40.The White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood Country Coordinator, Ms Rose Mlay, said this here while talking to some Form Four and Six students in various schools who are expecting to select science courses for further studies.

"We need midwifery back in the list of the courses that these students can select for further studies. This will help in bridging the gap as the midwife to patience ratio is still poor at 1:40 far from the recommended 1:6," she said.The Alliance's focal person in Ruvuma Region, Dr Hermengild Mayunga noted that the reintroduction of the midwifery course in the cell forms was vital as many students have developed interest in the course.

Dr Mayunga, who is also the Programme Director with Orphan Relief Services (ORES) an NGO which works in the region noted that midwifery is such a noble profession as it targets saving lives.Ms Christina Mwandalima, a midwife from Muhimbili National Hospital, noted that it was vital for the government to make midwiferry a crucial course from all levels of studies and ensure that all the opportunities to recruit new midwives were fully utilized.

"I love my job but sometimes it is a challenge working in this field. I sometimes feel very sad when an expectant mother comes in the hospital and I fail to attend her properly just because the number of mothers calling for my assistance at the time is bigger than I can handle," she said.

Ms Marry Mbunga a midwife from Ruvuma Regional Hospital, lamented that deliberate efforts should be made in seeing the increased number of midwives or else midwives will continue to receive unfair blames.

"When a women or a newborn dies in hospital all the blames goes to midwives but the fact is that we are working in a stressful environment as we cannot adequately attend to the number of expectant mothers who have outnumbered us by far," she said.