That means that now they are off to the various hospitals, and healthcare centers across the country to assist expecting mothers. We stopped by the ceremony today and here's what we saw:

Lizett Bell, Chief Nursing Officer, MOHW
"This ceremony today is for us to celebrate the completion of our 20 nurses who embark in the Certificate in Midwifery program in last year. In January of 2024 so we are celebrating their completion of the program today."

"This program is a 15 month program. It's focused in midwifery, so it's for them to develop the expertise in providing quality maternal care and child care as well. And so, these nurses would have to do a number of hours in the clinical setting. Also, they are able to do some theory as well. For them to be able to complete the program, they must complete at least 30 deliveries in addition to the number of hours that they need to complete in the clinical lab So, it's a very rigorous program. And, it's a nonstop program where they do not get holidays. They literally go to school for 15 months straight until they complete their program."

"Midwifery is, a profession, a specialised area in health services, it's very important because this is where we provide care for the woman during her, pregnancy. We ensure that they have a safe delivery, and we also care for them and the families during that period and post delivery. These nurses are also trained to provide services to children as well. During this training, for us as a country to be able to, improve with our neonatal and maternal, health services. It is critical for us to ensure that we have midwives that are competent, and they are trained at the level where they can provide this quality services. I would like to highlight that, in Belize we have been seeing constant decrease in maternal mortality and this is so because we have competent health care workers. We they are committed. They provide the care as per the treatment protocols. And so, we must congratulate them for what they have been doing so far."

Lecia Bevans, Interim Chair, Nursing Department UB
"In our country a Midwife, you're not considered a midwife until you pass that licensure exam. So the students can complete that midwifery program. They can meet all the criteria area for the program But if they do not pass the licensure exam that is set by the Nurses and Midwives Council, then they are not midwives. So that is the last step that our student need to do. Now this program have have been running."

"The previous school of nursing used to run a midwifery program, and at that time it used to be with the Ministry of Health. Since UB, since the amalgamation with UB in 2000, in preparing, I observed that our first cohort was in 2001."

"Since the nursing department came and was amalgamated with the other institution to UB then they have been running this program on the request of the Ministry of Health."