International Day of the Midwife
On May 5th the 12th Virtual International Day of the Midwife conference celebrates International Day of the Midwife. It is free and fully online. We have our highest number of presentations to date with a total of 38 presentations over 24 hours. We are also honoured to host a preconference event with WHO associates who have requested this opportunity to speak to the worlds’ midwives starting 3 hours beforehand.
Speakers come from 17 countries across 6 continents, and presentations are offered in English and Spanish. The Student Stream has expanded this year, with 7 sessions of particular interest to student midwives, including 2 invited speaker sessions. As to be expected in this time of pandemic, COVID-19 issues are foremost. Starting with the preconference event Midwives on the Pandemic Frontline: WHO COVID-19 Update and continuing over the next 24 hours there is much to inspire and support your midwifery practice.
The Programme
The VIDM 2020 Programme is published using the UTC time zone, starting with the Preconference sessions at 19:00 on 04 May. A link is provided in each session description to show the time in your location. You can also subscribe to the Programme Calendar to add either the entire program or individual sessions to your own electronic calendar.
As the VIDM has no funding and is organised and run by volunteers, we rely on two sponsors to provide essential services. The ARM pays for the email and website domain. Frontier University provides the platform from which the video conferencing software is run. I am one of the 11 volunteers on the organising committee. This is the highlight of my year with regular meetings from Sept to May online, abstracts to review for presentations and posters, work to complete on the website, and midwives and other maternity workers from all over the world to meet virtually as we prepare them to use the very simple technology to present on May 5th. And the best part? Knowing that this conference is the only Midwifery conference that gives all midwives equity in the opportunity to speak at or attend a professional conference whatever their financial situation. It also costs the planet very little!
There is no need to book. Look through the programme, choose your sessions and add them to your electronic diary. I look forward to seeing you there.
Linda Wylie
Had hoped ‘site’ would mention 2021 VIDM …