It is well accepted globally, that midwives can save the lives of mothers and their newborn
successfully, if the community stakeholders provide support and freedom for full
scope of practice. Recognising this many countries deploy midwives in the community as
an intervention to achieve the MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) 4 and 5 targets
set for decreasing maternal and neonatal mortality, respectively.
However, high-income countries’ reports show very good results, in achieving MDGs 4
and 5 while the low-income countries lag behind in this regard. The situation in highincome
and low-income countries is different because midwives practising in the
community in low-income countries face many barriers. These barriers include a lack of
understanding of midwives’ role, inadequate logistic arrangements, patriarchy, culture,
and norms at the level of the family and society that affect all CMWs’ (Community
Midwives) lives as women. This case report seeks to explain how the pattern of the patriarchal social system imposes
barriers on the practice of midwives in low-income countries, with particular focus on
Pakistan. It also recommends that midwives should be empowered in order to deal with
barriers that are imposed due to patriarchy and tradition.