Helping Mothers Survive is pleased to announce that the inaugural global training of our newest module, Essential Care for Labor & Birth (ECL&B), was held at the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) Africa Regional Conference in Windhoek, Namibia on September 11, 2019.  Intensive preparations for the workshop included preparing all master trainers in advance and having materials shipped to Namibia and cleared through customs. Many documents were printed locally and in-country logistics were supported by the Independent Midwives Association of Namibia (IMANA). Partners from Laerdal Global Health traveled with needed materials as well.

ECL&B began its development with the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) and Jhpiego in 2016.  ICM provided expert feedback during module development, with this collaboration resulting in a 1-day learning module designed to improve the quality and experience of care for women and newborns during labor, birth, and immediately after. ECL&B is the foundation of the Helping Mothers Survive suite, forming the basis of quality, respectful care for women at birth.

Jhpiego master trainer (MT) Gaudiosa Tibaijuka traveled from Tanzania to support ICM 50,000 Happy Birthdays midwifery Project Managers (PM) from Ethiopia, Rwanda and Tanzania, and ICM midwives Martha Bokosi and Florence West along with Laerdal Global Health MTs  to implement the training, in which 37 participants were certified as ECL&B champions. Most of the participants were midwives and nurse/midwives, along with two midwifery students and one doctor, coming from 22 different countries and representing the education sector, Ministries of Health, iNGOs and UN agencies. Congratulations to ICM for this well-received event! Stay connected with HMS by joining our member portal on the website.

The Helping Mothers Survive team traveled to Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Tanzania this summer to support the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) to launch their 50, 000 Happy Birthdays project.  Working with country midwifery associations, educators and other partners, Jhpiego conducted Training of Trainers for Bleeding after Birth Complete (BABC) and Pre-Eclampsia & Eclampsia (PE&E) using the low-dose, high-frequency (LDHF) approach to learning. Below is a short summary of what we accomplished in each country.

KIGALI, RWANDA (August 2018)

The HMS team worked with Jhpiego country staff in partnership with the Rwanda Association of Midwives (RAM). And 50K HBD project manager, Fidele Nkurunziza. We trained a total of 61 midwives, nurses, doctors, and clinical officers in both HMS BABC and HMS PE&E.  Of those trained in the first round, 10 were selected to be mentored while training their first group of participants.

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA (September 2018)        

In Ethiopia, we built the capacity of a smaller group of trainers working with the Ethiopia Midwives Association (EMwA) and the project manager for 50K HBD, Tachawt Salilih.  Six were EMwA trainers for the 50K HBD project, one was a Dutch physician who was working in Northern Ethiopia, and one was a physician from Cameroonian M.D who will be implementing HMS in West Africa through UNFPA.

Six participants were mentored during their first training of 18 additional candidate trainers in HMS PE&E to start the scale-up of the 50K HBD project.

MWANZA & GEITA, TANZANIA (September/October 2018)

The HMS team worked with Jhpiego staff from the Boresha Afya (BA) project to train midwives from the Tanzania Midwives Association (TAMA) including Lucy Mabada, project manager of 50K HBD. For this event, 14 Master trainers were trained from the Geita, Tanga, and Katavi regions. Of the 14, five candidate trainers were mentored during their first training of 24 providers in Geita. In week 3, the newly mentored trainers offered training to begin rolling out HMS BABC and PE&E to all 132 Facilities in Geita and selected facilities in Tanga and Katavi regions.