New York, Sept. 25 -- Prime Minister Tarique Rahman's wife Dr Zubaida Rahman, on Thursday stressed the need to put professional midwives at the centre of primary healthcare to help end preventable maternal and newborn deaths.

She made the remarks while delivering the concluding remarks at a high-level side event titled "From Commitment to Action: Integrating Midwifery into Primary Health Care to End Preventable Maternal and Newborn Deaths" at the UN Headquarters here.

Zubaida said professional midwives save lives and stressed the need to build health systems that enable them to work effectively, equitably and sustainably.

"For Bangladesh, this discussion comes at an important moment. We are redesigning our Primary Health Care (PHC) sys...