In 2015, personal accreditation system for Japanese midwives was started by Japan Institute of Midwifery Evaluation. In the present practice, midwives are not able to acquire advanced competencies. It is required to enhance midwifery competencies in a planned manner. Because of Japan‘s declining birthrate and uneven distribution of work places for midwives, opportunities for midwives to experience midwifery practice are decreasing and proficiency cannot be enhanced easily. The Japanese Nursing Association realized the need for strategic enhancement of midwifery practice, and consequently developed the Clinical Ladder of Competencies for Midwifery Practice (CLoCMiP) to be made available wherever it was needed. Five midwifery-related associations (Japanese Nursing Association, Japanese Midwives Association, Japan Academy of Midwifery, Japan Society Midwifery Education, and Japan Institute of Midwifery Evaluation) each shared a sense of crisis that the current situation hindered the ability of midwives to improve their ability and performance, so they held multiple meetings and decided to establish a certification system based on CLoCMiP. CLoCMiP evaluates ’ethical thinking‘, ’maternity care‘ and ’professional autonomous skills‘ as midwifery core competencies and comprises 5 levels from Novice to Level IV. The CLoCMiP Certification System started in August 2015 by certifying midwives at Level III, who are considered capable of providing midwifery care autonomously.
To be linked to this, designation rules of midwifery education was changed by Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. It increases from 28 credits to 31 credits, and applied from 2022.It should be strengthened in perinatal mental health, clinical judgment skills, Comprehensive support for the child-rearing generation in the community and so on. Then, we reviewed our midwifery program and created core curriculum in preferred midwifery education by Japan Society Midwifery Education.
I will show the requirements of Advanced-midwife and let's think about Interprofessional Continuing Education.