The idea for the Sensitive Midwifery Symposium was conceived in 1996 at the Sister Lilian Centre, a health education and pregnancy and parenting advice centre started by well-known South African midwife and health educator, Sister Lilian. The Symposium is now a major annual event on the professional nursing and midwifery calendar of southern Africa. In 2006 it was attended by 650 delegates from both private and state sectors, over two days in Gauteng and one day in Cape Town.

The spirit of this Symposium is to support all in this special profession to be able to render the most sensitive service possible to our clients and patients.
The symposium has grown tremendously but the goalposts have remained constant. The Sensitive Midwifery Symposium will always strive to offer a mix of current ideas, updating of expertise and sensitive practices, to challenge non-defendable policies and to provide a forum of inspiration for our profession, while providing a few days of wonderful celebration and peer support. The Symposium is proud to be an exciting event on the South African nursing calendar, and thanks are due to the many loyal delegates who attend and to the many companies in the health industry for regularly sponsoring and exhibiting.

The ratio of private sector delegates (private hospital and other facilities, as well as independent nurse practitioners) to public sector (clinics and hospitals from all levels) is approximately 50/50. All nine provinces of South Africa are represented and neighbouring countries like Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe regularly send small delegations too.

Since 2003, international involvement from other continents has been made possible by the Johnson&Johnson Pediatric Institute, who have sponsored acclaimed speakers and other events at the Symposium. JJPI also give generous educational and other useful gifts to all delegates. In 2006, JJPI made a DVD celebrating birth and the professions that care for women in this phase of their lives, on location in South Africa. Sister Lilian was asked to coordinate filming opportunities and advise on the full spectrum of facilities in South Africa.
This DVD was shown for the first time at the Sensitive Midwifery Symposium in South Africa in 2006, to great acclaim.

From 2008 the Symposium is brought to you by the Pampers Institute, with exciting developments and training of professionals countrywide. The Pampers Institute also sponsored lovely fetal monitoring workbooks in 2007, and they’ve made it possible for us to again distribute these workbooks at the 2008 Symposium.

Since 2005, South Africa's leading pregnancy and parenting magazine, Living&Loving, has been the media partner of the Sensitive Midwifery Symposium. To reinforce this partnership, Living&Loving started a dedicated midwife page in each issue of the magazine, with useful information that can be used as teaching aids. Material for this page is prepared by Sister Lilian. Nursing Update magazine has asked to duplicate this series for wider distribution to the nursing fraternity, showing how the Symposium generates a ripple effect on this profession.

In 2007 the Sensitive Midwifery Symposium took, due to delegate and exhibitor demand, its next growth step, and spread its wings to Durban in Kwazulu-Natal.
We look forward to sustained growth in the future.