Dalarna University's logo and link to the university's website

Background: Midwives are a relatively new profession in Bangladesh but the number has increased over the past ten years, partly thanks to international development aid. Dalarna University, Sweden, is capacity building the midwifery education in Bangladesh since 2016/2017 through a net-based master’s degree for midwifery educators. Promoting good health, quality education and gender equality are parts of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which constitute this study's theoretical perspective. Aim: To describe anticipated opportunities and barriers in a net-based master´s program for midwifery educators in Bangladesh from students´ perspective. Methods: A qualitative design with an inductive approach was used in which the empirical data was collected through Focus Group Discussions (FGD), each consisting of six to seven midwifery educators. The FGDs were analysed by thematic analysis. Findings: The net-based midwifery program as seen by the midwifery educators revealed Opportunities: enhanced IT skills, communication impact, increased efficiency, learning and teaching skills, strengthening Sexual, Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and Barriers: technical challenges, language challenges, workload, communication challenges and social challenges. Conclusion: Net-based education has good prospects of empowering midwifery teachers who subsequently educate midwives in Bangladesh. Thus, developing countries are through net-based education being provided with access to evidence-based knowledge which can reduce the child and maternal mortality rate if transferred from theory into clinical practice by the midwives. Clinical applicability: Net-based education may facilitate diffusing midwifery practice globally which could make a difference for women all over the world, without much expenses. The findings have the potential to be applied in low-resource contexts where the midwifery education needs to be strengthened. A training in IT systems before the program starts would increase the self-confidence for a smoother transition into being students in a net-based education.