Maternal Child Health

New Maternity Program

Without access to modern medical care and with the risks of infectious disease, pregnancy, childbirth and childhood are dangerous experiences in Lwala. Most women in Lwala give birth in their dirt-floored huts, either alone or with the assistance of traditional birth attendants. Our founder Milton recalls a pivotal experience as a teenager, when he was called upon in the middle of the night to help push a woman suffering from complicated labor to the hospital in a wheelbarrow. She died on the way, and Milton turned around and wheeled her back home for her funeral.

In order to meet the needs in the village, we have committed to expanding our Maternal Child Health programs by building and staffing a maternity facility and scaling our public health programming in the area  around Lwala. This initiative is also supported by Senator Bill Frist and the Segal Family Foundation.

If you are interested in contributing to the cost of expanding the Maternal Child Health program in Lwala, please visit our donate page.

The Plan

Prenatal Care

The health center already offers basic prenatal care and education, including intermittent malaria treatment and PMTCT. However, we would like to develop a more thorough program that would allow us to identify mothers early in their pregnancy and offer consistent care through the prenatal period. In the course of this program we would identify high-risk mothers to refer to the Tabaka Mission Hospital, before there is an emergency.

Delivery

We propose to build a small maternity ward as part of a new building that will also house MCH services, VCT, and our HIV program. This will require the purchase of basic equipment including a delivery bed and basic tools and medications.

Postnatal Care

The creation of a maternity program will require developing a system of postnatal follow-up care. The few children who have already been born at the health center are receiving regular well-child checkups. We propose to offer this service to all children born at the health center. We also plan to develop education and support groups for HIV positive mothers. These groups will provide social and emotional support for women who have decided not to breastfeed to reduce risk of vertical transmission of HIV. The health center will encourage HIV positive mothers not to breast feed and offer in-home water purification systems and baby formula. Through focus group discussions with women’s groups in Lwala it has become clear that women are willing to face the stigma of not breastfeeding in order to keep their children safe, and the women’s groups are willing to provide social interventions in situations where women face social challenges in formula feeding.

Public Health Outreach, Training and Referral Network

At present, most children in the region are still born at home with the help of traditional birth attendants (TBAs). Though we aim to provide a safer option for women, we also recognize the vitality of this traditional network and its cultural influence. We propose to offer training to traditional birth attendants in identifying risky pregnancies before they become emergent, and training in the necessity of VCT and PMTCT for antenatal mothers. We will also attempt to integrate the local TBAs into the maternity program at the health center. By partnering with TBAs we can tap into an effective referral network for at-risk and HIV positive ante-natal mothers.

Equipment and Supplies

This program will require the purchase of several delivery kits and a delivery table to equip the delivery room. It will also require beds, IV poles and other furniture to equip the maternity ward. For postnatal care of children born to HIV positive mothers, in-home purification systems must be purchased to provide safe water for mixing formula. These systems will be based on the WHO’s simple and proven “Safe Water” chlorine-treatment program, and require only a receptacle with a screw tight lid and a tap, and locally available, cheap “water guard” solution. We will also need to purchase adequate formula to feed these babies for their first 6 months of life. Various training supplies will be necessary for TBA training.

Facility

At present, the health center has no unused space to develop the proposed maternity program. We plan to construct a building with a delivery room, a small maternity ward, and a toilet and shower room. Because our MCH services are currently being provided in the kitchen of the existing health center, we would like to consolidate our pre- and post-natal services with our existing MCH services in this new building, which would require the construction of a dedicated MCH room. These rooms would be combined with the space necessary for the proposed HIV/AIDS program in a single new building.