The Soul Beat 173 - Communicating for Safe Motherhood

From SOUL BEAT AFRICA - where communication and media are central to AFRICA's social and economic development

In this issue of The Soul Beat:

* ACTION FOR SAFE MOTHERHOOD by highlighting mothers' rights and stories of mothers saved...
* UNFPA REPORT on global progress on MDG 4...
* COMMUNICATING FOR MOTHER AND CHILD SURVIVAL through cell phones and religious leaders...
* FISTULA PREVENTION AND RESPONSES using digital stories and community participation...

This edition of The Soul Beat shares a selection of experiences, research, and resources from the Soul Beat Africa website on maternal health in Africa. The newsletter focuses on the use of communication for general action around maternal health, more specifically, for mother and child survival, and for the prevention of and response to obstetric fistula.

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ACTION FOR SAFE MOTHERHOOD

1. Giving Life, Risking Death: Maternal Mortality in Burkina Faso
Published by Amnesty International in December 2009, this report examines preventable maternal mortality in Burkina Faso, and argues that the high rate (2000 women per year) of maternal deaths in the country shows that women are being denied their right to health - a right enshrined in international and national law, a right that every state is obliged to respect, protect, and fulfil. The report presents recommendations to the government, the international community, and donors to entrench progress and tackle maternal mortality with greater consistency and, more generally, to enhance respect for women’s rights.

2. The Edge of Joy - Documentary
This January 20111 documentary follows Nigerian doctors, midwives, and families as they face the challenge of maternal care in Nigeria. This portrait of pregnancy and childbirth is designed to show the consequences of poor maternal health as it explores the nuances and complexities of bringing emerging health technologies to the developing world. Inside a maternity ward, the film chronicles distressed labours, deaths, and miraculous survival. Outside the ward, lack of blood supply transportation and family planning are examined as causes of the cycle that kills more than 36,000 Nigerian women each year.

3. A Guide to Action for Community Mobilisation and Empowerment Focused on Postabortion Complications: Facilitator's Manual
Published in December 2010 by the RESPOND Project/EngenderHealth and Community Mobilization for Postabortion Care (COMMPAC) Kenya, this training manual is based on the experiences in Kenya focused on community mobilisation for postabortion care (PAC) activities that are being implemented and evaluated in the Nakuru District of Rift Valley Province. The manual focuses on the Community Action Cycle, a participatory problem-solving approach, in which community members are able to identify, prioritise, and solve the major problems relating to PAC in their communities.

4. MDGFive.com - Global
Using the power of social media, MDGFive.com is a global media initiative intended to increase civic engagement in the fight to improve maternal health under the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Revolving around an online community that unites artists and activists for maternal health advocacy, it is spearheaded by Emmy-award-winning filmmaker and international health specialist Lisa Russell and Grammy-award-winning singer, Maya Azucena, who are drawing on their collective network in both the creative and humanitarian fields. Creative content (30- to 60-second clips of music, film/video, spoken word clips of poetry, etc.) submitted by participating artists from around the world are made available for users of MDGFive.com to "mash up" to create personalised public service announcements (PSAs) on maternal health.

5. Stories of Mothers Saved - Global
Created as part of an initiative organised jointly by the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood® and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Stories of Mothers Saved is a collection of individual stories of women who did not die needlessly in pregnancy or childbirth - due to a key action taken by her, her family, the community, a health worker, a political leader, or others. It is an online resource featuring stories - told through photography, written stories, film, and audio - that highlight what works and what must be done at all levels: from saving money, to securing transportation to the health facility when labour begins, to having access to family planning services, to receiving an emergency caesarean section, to attending a well-equipped and staffed facility because the government prioritised maternal and newborn health.

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COUNTDOWN TO 2015: MATERNAL, NEWBORN AND CHILD SURVIVAL

Published by the United Nations Fund for Population (UNFPA), this report collects and analyses data from the 68 countries that account for at least 95% of maternal and child deaths. It produces country profiles that present coverage data for a range of key health services, including contraceptive use, antenatal care, skilled attendance at delivery, postnatal care, child health, financial investments in maternal, newborn and child health, and equity of access, health systems and policy.

Click here to read the report on the UNFPA website.

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COMMUNICATING FOR MOTHER AND CHILD SURVIVAL

6. Sermon Guides to Save the Lives of Mothers and Newborns – Toolkits for Religious Leaders
Published by IMA World Health in May 2009, this series of sermon guides in English, French, and Kinyarwanda is designed to assist faith-based leaders (both Christian and Muslim) to help save the lives of mothers and newborns. The sermon guides include descriptions of problems encountered by mothers, solutions for those problems, and sermon starters to help people educate their congregation on safe motherhood practices.

7. Cell Phones Help Save the Lives of Mothers, Infants, and Children
According to this article, published in November 2010 on the Global Health Council website, simple technology like cellphones can be used to save the lives of mothers in childbirth and improve the care of newborns and children, reaching underserved populations in remote areas. "More advanced mobile technology can do even more, such as checking on patients, keeping records, improving diagnosis and treatment in the field, and letting community health workers consult general practitioners and specialists for guidance."

8. How to Mobilize Communities for Improved Maternal and Newborn Health
By Charlotte Z. Storti (lead writer)
This "how to" guide, published by the ACCESS Program in April 2009, contains instructions for carrying out a community mobilisation (CM) initiative to improve the health of pregnant women and newborns. The guide is intended for individuals who will work with communities as they mobilise to improve maternal and newborn health, but is also written to be useful for anyone who seeks to better understand the steps and resources inherent in engaging communities to organise, explore, plan for, act on, and evaluate collective action to achieve health and social change.

9. Working with Individuals, Families and Communities to Improve Maternal and Newborn Health
By Carlo Santarelli
This report, published by the the Making Pregnancy Safer (MPS) Department of the World Health Organization (WHO) in January 2003, proposes that both improvement of health services and actions at the community level are required to ensure that women and their newborns have access to the skilled care they need, when they need it. According to MPS, working with individuals, families and communities (IFC) is the critical link in ensuring the recommended continuum of care throughout pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum periods. Furthermore, it is recognised that the availability of quality services will not produce the desired health outcomes where there is no possibility to be healthy, to make healthy decisions, and to be able to act on those healthy decisions.

10. Ghana Case Study: Maternal and Infant Health Programmes for Young Rural Women
This online report from December 2009 provides survey data from AudienceScapes that outlines demographic and behavioural characteristics of young women in Ghana. The data are intended to provide guidance to development groups seeking to reach young women with public health information. The report also provides recommendations and lessons for communication campaigns working to reach young rural Ghanaian women with maternal and infant health information.

OBSTETRIC FISTULA PREVENTION AND RESPONSES

11. "I Am Not Dead, But I Am Not Living” Barriers to Fistula Prevention and Treatment in Kenya
This report is based on field research conducted by Human Rights Watch in November and December 2009 in Kenyan hospitals in Kisumu, Nairobi, Kisii, and Machakos, as well as in Dadaab in March 2010. The report discusses five areas that require increased attention in order to improve maternal health care and reduce obstetric fistulas: access to family planning information and services; the provision of school-based sexuality education; access to emergency obstetric care, including referral and transport systems; overcoming economic barriers to maternal health care services and fistula treatment; and health system accountability.

12. Beyond Repair: Involving Communities in Fistula Prevention and Reintegration - Experience from Kissidougou, Guinea
By Michelle Trombley and Mieko McKay
This project brief from 2010 highlights the strategies and lessons learned by EngenderHealth to engage in fistula care activities in the Kissidougou province of Guinea. The project encourages the formation of safe motherhood committees who are a key part of awareness raising. The volunteer safe motherhood committees are given flipcharts, data collection tools, sacks, t-shirts, hats, megaphones, and flashlights (during harvesting periods, when people are busy during the day, volunteers must do their work at night). They visit family compounds to check in with pregnant women, and participate in social events such as weddings and baptisms to deliver health talks.

13. Sharing the Burden: Ugandan Women Speak About Obstetric Fistula
This report from November 2007 presents the findings and recommendations of a study conducted by EngenderHealth and the Women's Dignity Project in Uganda around obstetric fistula. The research was conducted to understand girls' and women's vulnerability to fistula through their own views and experiences, as well as the views of family and community members, and local health care providers. The study provided a platform for women to convey the multi-faceted impacts of fistula, and a means to capture their recommendations for local solutions to prevent and manage the condition.

14. Bringing Back Dignity: Women Confront Fistula in Ethiopia
Produced in January 2008 by EngenderHealth under the ACQUIRE (Access, Quality, and Use in Reproductive Health) Project, Bringing Back Dignity is a documentary film designed to raise awareness about obstetric fistula. Three video excerpts from the documentary are available online. These three videos tell the stories of Tihun, Yeserash, and Abebu - three young women from Ethiopia who have survived obstetric fistula. The women and their family members give insight into the difficulties of life with fistula, the joys of being repaired, and the lessons learned from their experiences.

15. Obstetric Fistula Digital Stories Facilitator's Guide
Published by Fistula Care in January 2010, this facilitator’s guide accompanies a series of digital stories, called Learn from My Story, made by and about 11 Ugandan women who share stories about how fistula has affected their lives. The stories recount hardships and celebrate achievements related to their daily struggles with pregnancy, loss, and relationships, as well as their search for safety, acceptance, and dignity. The guide is designed to help those who wish to have conversations about fistula and to educate groups such as health care providers, women with fistula, community members, and policy makers. It includes discussion questions and key messages for each story.

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Previous related issues of The Soul Beat e-newsletter:

The Soul Beat 130 - Promoting Family Planning

The Soul Beat 116 - Maternal Health

Click here to view ALL archived editions of The Soul Beat Newsletter.