The programme is intended to provide midwives working in the maternity and neonatal nursery areas with advanced knowledge and specialized skills which will assist in providing specialised midwifery and neonatal nursing care to individuals with high-risk and life-threatening conditions. It is hoped that these specialist midwives will function as leaders, who are clinically focused, service-oriented, autonomous and innovative, able to render specialist midwifery care in a continuum as determined by the appropriate legislative framework.