Our Mission
The Department of Midwifery is dedicated to contributing to the sustainable provision of quality reproductive health services through the provision of societal need tailored education; problem based reproductive health research and relevant community services.
Our Vision
We aspire to ensure that women, new born and adolescents enjoy sexual and reproductive rights and health and seek to be an excellent centre in education, research and community service in the country by 2020.
Our Work
“A midwife is a person who has successfully completed a midwifery education programme that is recognized in the country where it is located and that is based on the ICM Essential Competencies for Basic Midwifery Practice and the framework of the ICM Global Standards for Midwifery Education; who has acquired the requisite qualifications to be registered and/or legally licensed to practice midwifery and use the title ‘midwife’; and who demonstrates competency in the practice of midwifery.”
The midwife is recognized as a responsible and accountable professional who works in partnership with women to give the necessary support, care and advice during pregnancy, labour and the postpartum period, to conduct births on the midwife’s own responsibility and to provide care for the newborn and the infant. This care includes preventative measures, the promotion of normal birth, the detection of complications in mother and child, the accessing of medical care or other appropriate assistance and the carrying out of emergency measures. The midwife has an important task in health counseling and education, not only for the woman, but also within the family and the community. This work should involve antenatal education and preparation for parenthood and may extend to women’s health, sexual or reproductive health and child care.
Midwifery education aspires to develop midwives who are able to be with women in any society, acknowledging that people continue to experience inequalities, deprivations and injustices as well as a growing number of professional, family and environmental stresses. Midwifery education, through its content and processes, will be individually and collectively liberating in terms of gender, class, race, sexuality and creed. Midwifery education seeks to facilitate the development of skilled, caring, knowledgeable and effective midwives who communicate openly and engender trust from a wide range of people.
The Department of Midwifery believes that all midwifery education should be formulated in content, design and delivery to assist those who wish to pursue the ancient and noble art of midwifery. We wish to see midwifery education attracting applicants with a vocational commitment to mothers, babies, families and midwifery and meeting their diverse social, personal and educational needs. Visionary midwifery is enabled by non-hierarchical relationships and this needs to be reflected in the way we educate future midwives.
Our Department is committed to train professional Midwives who can make a significant contribution to the health of the nation; devoted to the generation and application of theory and research for the advancement of Reproductive health; advocates ongoing efforts to maintain its mission through furthering excellence in Midwifery practice and education with a broad base of expertise; devoted to being a research institution and a community force providing leadership for meeting health care needs; and provides advanced Midwifery care in a variety of settings in accordance with the standard set for this level.
The Midwifery Department at University of Gondar is by far the largest midwifery training institute in Ethiopia providing midwifery training both in undergraduate and postgraduate level. We currently have 656 students enrolled on our programs. Our work is supported by 21 academic staff.
Research and Community Services
Our Department is providing community services through TTP programs including outreach health services for many households in five TTP sites of the college (T/Dingay, Chilga, Kolladiba, Addis Zemen and Woreta), health services in three health centers (Azezo, Mereki and Gondar health center) in Gondar town as well as participating in community service projects in the University.
Our staff are also engaged in the following research funded by the University of Gondar:
| Title of the research | Principal Investigators | Co-investigators |
| Assessment of the magnitude of male involvement in PMTCT and associated factors among male whose their wives have ANC visit 12 months prior to the study in Gondar town, North west Ethiopia, August, 2012. | Abdella Amano(BSc, MPH/Epidemiology & Biostatistics/ |
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| Number and timing of HIV testing and associated factors among mothers who had given birth within one year period at Chilga Woreda, Northern Ethiopia, 2012/3 G.C. | Dariye Getachew(BSc, MPH) |
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Our Achievements
Our Department has been selected as the top school from amongst all midwifery departments and other health science faculties in Ethiopia (including Addis Ababa University and Jimma University) by JHPIEGO Ethiopia. Internally our Department has also been recognized as Department of the year in the College of Medicine and Health Sciences (CMHS) in the 2011/2012 academic year.
The Department has also undertaken a range of activities in collaboration with JHPIEGO-Ethiopia to improve the quality of midwifery education: baseline survey analysis, HIV/AIDS content integration, Physical capacity development, and trainings. Assessments were done in 5 major educational standard areas (class room and practical instruction, clinical instruction and practice, assessment approach, school infrastructure, and educational management). Based on the internal assessment the department has achieved successfully for 3 consecutive times by accomplishing different activities like: opening of midwifery skill lab, OSCE, learning guide and log book preparation and distribution to students to use in clinical practice and demonstration session.
Our Partners and Collaborators
Our Department has strong working links with a range of national and international governmental and non- governmental organizations including:
- UNFPA – providing different materials and training for the Department
- TECH Ethiopia – Pre service education capacity building
- CDC- Pre service education capacity building
- Columbia University – through the Nursing Education Partnership Initiative (NEPI) project- Improving Quality Nurses in improving quality of education
- JHPIEGO – Pre service education capacity building
- I-PASS Ethiopia- providing pre service training on comprehensive abortion care and long term family planning
- WHO- Supporting fund to strengthen M.Sc. midwifery programs
- IntraHealth International: Pre service education Capacity building
- Ethiopian Midwives Association (EMA): Strengthening in service training
Our Background
Midwifery training at the University of Gondar is among the earliest of its kind in Ethiopia. It was started in 1959 in the Public Health College and Training Center. Upon completion of their initial training Nurses would have to receive a further nine months of Midwifery training. This practice was discontinued in 1978 and re-launched in 1986 with Midwives receiving certificate level training within the Midwifery Department with help of SIDA. Since then the work has steadily developed and in 1998 Midwives were able to receive direct diploma progressing to a first post basic BSc in 2004. In 2005 the first generic degree program in midwifery began and in 2010 for the first time in the country our Department was able to expand the program to master’s level.
Contact us
If you would like to learn more about our work please contact:
- Name:
- Ato Abdella Amano
- Job Title
- Head, Department of Midwifery
- Tel (office):
- +251581110004
- Email:
- a2ay.oro@gmail.com