3rd Annual Maternal and Child Health Training Conference
We are so excited to see this ongoing effort continue to flourish. This year we trained over 60 incredible midwives in Tonkolili district how to prevent neonatal deaths and prevent, diagnose and treat postpartum hemorrhage per curriculum developed by WHO and Jhpiego
Rising Trainers
These rising trainers were chosen from our previous conferences due to their high performance and interests. It was great to hear their stories of how they’ve already begun teaching in their facilities. Their training starts before the conference to ensure they are ready to teach the Essential Newborn Care and Helping Mothers Survive curriculum alongside us.
The changes are coming slowly but surely, and the knowledge is being transferred effectively by the people in Sierra Leone. That’s the ultimate goal. That our role in these conferences eventually becomes obsolete and the health system in the country is able to maintain and sustain it on their own.
We’re Off To A Great Start!
We started with knowledge and confidence assessments to understand the baseline foundation of our group, then launched into learning! It was a rejuvenating and energetic day as the participants actively learned about prevention of PPH and the golden minute for resuscitation of the newborn. We provided different visual stations and lots of hands on learning.
We’re Halfway There!
We started the day with self-care and mindful breathing led by Maryanne. It’s a new technique that isn’t commonly taught here in Sierra Leone but was very well-received by the participants. Provider Burnout is common in the front-line health workers due to limited resources and high complication rates. This is a small step towards providing tools to help care for themselves.
We also the completed Essential Newborn Care 1. The maternal group got through prevention and early detection of postpartum hemorrhage for Helping Mothers Survive, and all participants passed OSCE 1!
This group is working hard and committed to learning, and we’re definitely sharing laughs along the way. Two more days to go!
We’re nearing the end of our conference to teach Helping Mothers Survive and Essential Newborn Care to midwives and nurses in Tonkolili District and the surrounding areas.
These days have been full of eagerness and learning something new, big or small, everyday day.
Learning Everyday
Final Thoughts
We were able to train over 60 midwives and nurses in Helping Mothers Survive and Essential Newborn Care!
We also provided 12 of our top performers with training equipment to optimize their low-dose high frequency training sessions in their facilities because skills sustainment is necessary to achieve real change on the ground.
We’ll be performing site visits next week to help our champions/practice coordinators cascade and integrate what they learned into the facilities, and demonstrate how this can be done during the clinical day in a non-disruptive manner.
These midwives are committed to safe deliveries and decreasing maternal and neonatal deaths. —Tenki