Gabrielle Fitzgerald, director of global program advocacy at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, discusses in the foundation’s “Impatient Optimists” blog the critical role of midwives in delivering family planning in Indonesia. Fitzgerald writes, “On January 1, Indonesia introduced a universal health insurance plan for all citizens, which will be phased in over the next five years. A key part of the government’s plan to improve health care is to strengthen midwives to provide family planning services…” (1/16).