UN Trains BU Midwifery Faculty

When a Palestinian woman goes into labor during a crisis, there’s nearly a one in three chance her midwife trained at Bethlehem University.

This summer, BU’s midwifery faculty got better prepared for that scenario.

Working in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Ms. Fatima Al-Madani Hammad, Chair of BU’s Midwifery Department, and colleagues trained in Ramallah on July 1-2 on delivering emergency reproductive healthcare in conflict settings. The training covered a range of skills from managing births under crisis conditions to responding to gender-based violence, skills urgently needed in Palestine today.

The training forms part of an ongoing partnership with UNFPA to integrate emergency reproductive health and rights into BU’s midwifery curriculum. The goal is for every midwife who graduates from Bethlehem University to leave prepared for the worst and equipped to provide the best possible care.

Palestinian women deserve skilled, prepared care, in delivery rooms and in crises. BU’s faculty are making sure they have it.

This builds on earlier work: on June 24, Ms. Fatima Al-Madani Hammad participated in the First SRHR Curriculum Integration Workshop in Ramallah, alongside faculty from Palestinian universities working on a joint project to align midwifery education across Palestine with international standards.

Bethlehem University’s Midwifery Department is part of the Tarek Juffali Faculty of Nursing and Health Sciences. The UNFPA partnership is conducted under the “Strengthening Midwifery Education: SRHR Integration in the Midwifery Curriculum” project.

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