BMS is the professional association for midwives in the country registered by the Department of women’s affairs, Bangladesh. There are 5,893 members of BMS across the country. BMS supports the rights of women to access safe, respectful maternity care. BMS is supported by the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) and UNFPA Bangladesh. From June 2017 to December 2022, BMS has been implementing a twinning project with Royal College of Midwives (RCM) UK and from January 2023 BMS has started implementing a project titled “Strengthening BMS” with International Confederation of Midwives (ICM), which will continue for four years.
Networking and Stakeholder engagements:
Stakeholder liaison including
women’s groups:
BMS engaged with key midwifery
stakeholders including UNFPA, DGNM, DGHS, BNA, BNMC, BRAC, icddr,b, TMSS, CRPRB
and the National Gender Working Group (NGWG).
BMS executives and staff also liaised with key women’s organisations
including IPAS, Naripokkho and Women Windows, and BINDU. This ensured that BMS was representing
midwives on relevant national issues.
Representatives from DGNM, UNFPA, RHStep, SMC and Nariphokko are now on
BMS’ Advisory Committee. All relevant stakeholders and the advisory committee
members participated in the Annual general Meeting of 9 December 2023.
Forum representation: BMS representatives
were present in CSO forum meetings focusing on strengthening sustainable SRHR
ecosystem in Bangladesh, National Gender Working Group focusing on Gender
transformation approaches and Feminist Network Bangladesh focusing on eliminate
of negative approaches for feminism and creating awareness.
Stakeholder meeting:
BMS organized a stakeholder’s meeting on 2-Dec-2023 at the Omni Residency Hotel, Banani. Target stakeholders were with whom BMS did not had previous connection and who may have Corporate Social responsibility (CSR) or other funds to support BMS for future collaboration. 35 stakeholders confirmed but only 18 were present in the program. Many of them said due to, it was Saturdays are their weekend they want to spend their time with family. However, although the participants were not as much as expected, they were fully engaged all through the program and there were discussions and debates. Many of them raised their concerns of unnecessary and expensive c-sections. Some stakeholders showed their interests and committed to invite BMS team to their programs so that more awareness can be developed around midwives’ roles and responsibilities.