SUPPORTING HEALTHY AND EMPOWERED MOTHERS

A WOW! e-Brief

Work of Women program @ World Neighbors

May 2007

 

Overview

 

World Neighbors and Safe Motherhood

World Neighbors works in a variety of ways to improve the health and lives of mothers and their children, including work that promotes delaying pregnancy until a mother or couple are safely able to carry, deliver and provide for a child, as well as accessing information and services that make pregnancy, childbirth and a baby’s first months much safer.

World Neighbors approach to healthy families and safe motherhood is based on empowering women and providing them with more choices through expanded access to education and health services, skill development and employment, and through their full involvement in decision-making processes at all levels. World Neighbors supports this approach both as a highly important end in and of itself and as a key to improving the quality of life for everyone. World Neighbors endorses the primary goal of the International Conference on Planning and Development to make family planning universally available by 2015 as part of a broadened approach to reproductive health and rights. We also support the related goals such as education, especially for girls, as well as further reducing levels of infant, child and maternal mortality.

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World Neighbors promotes the many benefits of education for a number of reasons. Among these is the fact that young women with a basic education are more likely to delay pregnancy until they are physically mature enough to safely carry and deliver a baby. Much of the work that World Neighbors does indirectly helps families support girls’ education. For example, when parents can reduce their workloads and earn sufficient income, they no longer need to keep children out of school to contribute to family survival. Efforts like installing local sources for sufficient clean water, helping community groups offer and access small amounts of reasonable credit and supporting new income generation options have the effect of more children being able to attend school. Other times, more direct work is required to ensure that girls along with boys are able to attend school. For example, in Bihar, India, a World Neighbors local partner operates an informal school for girls, which primarily serves Dalit girls from the caste often derogatorily referred to as “the untouchables.” In addition to classes for the girls, the teachers work with the parents to help them gain an understanding of the importance of girls (not just boys) attending school.

Well-nourished young women are more likely to be healthier during pregnancy and to be able to provide good and sufficient breast milk and food for their babies and children. Even when a community has sufficient food, for a number of reasons—both biological and social—women are often under- or poorly nourished. Nutrition is a basic component of World Neighbors community health work. Work includes education on how to achieve a balanced diet, and ways in which to prepare foods so that nutrients are maintained. Families learn how to develop kitchen gardens, and grow fruit trees to enhance their nutrition. World Neighbors also collaborates with government entities to ensure that malnourished children and women are appropriately referred to hospitals or feeding centers for treatment.

Safe Motherhood policies incorporate what we currently know works to keep mothers and their children safe during pregnancy, childbirth and the first months of a baby’s life. Safe motherhood initiatives are also part of World Neighbors programs, incorporating prenatal care, breastfeeding support, newborn care and family planning. A number of our programs, especially in Africa, include a strong educational and clinical component regarding HIV/AIDS – to assist communities in voluntary counseling and testing, provision of medications, reduction of stigma and discrimination and raising awareness regarding prevention, treatment and care.

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Family planning allows women and couples to delay pregnancy until they are ready, and to space children at healthy intervals. World Neighbors sees family planning as part of a wider program approach of reproductive health, with the emphasis on health and well being, providing people with choices, and empowering women. World Neighbors supports local partners who provide family planning programs that include awareness raising, education, counseling and provision of services.

Couples often do not know that there are ways to plan their family. They talk about increasing difficulty in educating and feeding their children. Once they are aware that they can plan their family, they go to a clinic, or they are referred to a partner clinic or the local hospital to further discuss their options, including natural methods or contraception.

Effective family planning requires that couples communicate with each other and that each of them has an equal say in the decision-making. World Neighbors works with families to support them in the areas of communication, decision-making, gender equity and access to family planning education and counseling. World Neighbors encourages families to seek support for their interest in family planning in order to have the number of children that they can support.

In doing so, World Neighbors works to reduce unwanted pregnancy and promote desired, healthy pregnancies and deliveries, thereby focusing on prevention of the need for abortion. In most countries where we work, abortion is illegal except to save a woman’s life or protect her physical health. World Neighbors supports counseling on the option of abortion in circumstances where it is legal and believes that abortions, though a last resort, should be provided as safely as possible. Because so many women die from abortions performed under unsafe conditions—whether legal or illegal—World Neighbors also works to ensure that women who are experiencing complications or other health problems due to unsafe abortions have access to quality health care services.

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World Neighbors offers options and choices, education and information. Decisions about use of contraception, for example, or seeking an abortion, are made by the individual woman or couple. We work hard with the communities to promote healthy women and healthy deliveries through the option of using natural family planning or contraception.

There are a variety of ways that World Neighbors offers education, counseling and services.  In some program areas, our partners run reproductive health clinics which include prenatal care, family planning and contraception, care during labor and delivery, newborn care and diagnosis and treatment of sexually transmitted illnesses. However, due to the lack of access to general health care in these rural communities, most of these clinics provide primary health care to all members of the family including immunizations, care for communicable diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, diarrheal disease and respiratory illnesses and referral or assistance around social issues such as domestic violence or severe financial issues. 

In other program areas, community health workers or health promoters provide counseling, education and services in the rural villages.  They are trained by World Neighbors staff or partners to provide family planning as part of the holistic community health program that includes all family and community issues such as clean water, sanitation, prevention of communicable disease, healthy houses and personal hygiene.

How services are provided is dependent on the community, the culture, the resources available in the area of health services and the needs of the families in the villages. There is no one model that works in all areas. In our most remote locations, for example in Bolivia, a trained community nursing staff walks six or eight hours to reach a village to provide education and support regarding family planning as part of our integrated community health approach. In Ecuador, that role is shared by a male/female team of integrated agriculture and health promoters, cross-trained in those areas. In Kenya and Tanzania, community health workers receive detailed training and are responsible for providing information and support on reproductive health, water and sanitation and home and personal hygiene for four or five villages. In other areas, education and services are provided by Ministry of Health posts in collaboration with World Neighbors.

Photos by Natalie Elwell.

 

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