Labour of Love: Empowering future midwives through mentorship

This is the story of Eden, a dedicated and passionate 24-year-old midwife mentee, and her experienced midwife mentor, 36-year-old Andinet, and the power of their partnership. 

The story takes place in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia – a country with a critical need for skilled midwifery care to combat maternal and newborn mortality and morbidity. 

To address these challenges, Maternity Foundation, alongside partnering organizations, support the implementation of Ethiopia’s national mentorship programme which aims to strengthen midwifery capacity, ultimately ensuring safer births for mothers and babies across Ethiopia. Through structured and personalised guidance, less experienced midwives are receiving the professional support they need to develop their midwifery skills, knowledge and confidence.  

Eden, originally from Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, pursued her education at one of the region’s larger cities, Axum.  

“I was inspired to become a midwife after a tragedy in my own family—my uncle’s wife died from postpartum bleeding. It was devastating. I chose this path to help ensure that no woman, and no family, must go through a loss like that again”, Eden explains.  

In Axum, Eden gained theoretical knowledge but felt she lacked adequate practical skills to apply it effectively in the field. Eden’s journey to become a confident midwife began at Lemi Kura Health Center, located in a sub-city of Addis Ababa. Here, she met Andinet, a midwife with 16 years of midwifery experience. Andinet saw the potential in Eden and acted as her mentor for 10 months through the national mentorship progamme. 

The mentorship programme helps build the practical skills Eden felt were missing from her experience by providing hands-on support, coaching, and training with integration of Maternity Foundation’s evidence-based job aid, the Safe Delivery App.  

The App is a training and micro learning tool designed to support midwives and other healthcare professionals in providing quality preventive, routine, and emergency care during pregnancy, birth and postpartum, to pregnant women, mothers and their newborns. It is free and once downloaded it also works offline, meaning it can support midwives anytime, anywhere.  

“When I can’t reach my mentor, I can always turn to the Safe Delivery App for support”, says Eden. For Andinet, the app is a great tool supporting her mentoring: “Before our training sessions, I’ll ask my mentees to use the Safe Delivery App to learn about certain procedures in advance. I’ll also encourage them to review the materials afterward to deepen their understanding.”  

The impact of the mentorship programme is profound. Eden, once uncertain and lacking the necessary skills, has evolved into a confident midwife able to manage herself independently.  

“I’ve now managed hundreds of births, and I’m no longer afraid. I’ve grown confident in my ability to handle complications with skill and confidence,” Eden says.  

Andinet adds, “Eden has gone through such a remarkable transformation. At first, she was shy and unsure of her abilities—but now, she confidently manages births and complications all on her own. I’m so proud of her.” 

Andinet finds great joy in mentoring and keeps up with her many mentees via the messaging app Telegram. She sees firsthand the impact of the mentorship programme – a sustainable model that fosters intergenerational networks of midwives, strengthens their skills, boosts their knowledge and confidence, and ultimately ensures safer births for women and newborns.