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Mothers, Healthy Babies: Prenatal and Postnatal Care |
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"We were on our way out of a village in eastern Tibet when
a pregnant woman came to the house where we were staying. She
walked with the assistance of her husband and a friend. She
was scared and tired. She told us that she had five children,
but her last one had been born dead. She was seven months pregnant
and could not feel the baby move. Dr. Nancy checked her blood
pressure and fetal heart rate. Both were alarming. We drove
her and her friend three hours away to the nearest county hospital.
It was such a powerless feeling, to see her in a strange cold
room, alone with just her one friend to help. However after
our team's treatment and support for her in the hospital the
woman recovered."
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—Field intern, 2000 |
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Problem: Maternal mortality is increasing in rural villages.
Furthermore, the maternal mortality rate reported in Tibet (73/10,000)
is higher than that found in most African countries and much
higher than in China as a whole (20/10,000). In 1999, following
extensive focus groups with village, county, and regional level
doctors and Maternal and Child Health Department personnel,
as well as extensive interviews with village women, the TCNP
was subcontracted to participate in a village birth attendant
training in two counties. Introductory theoretical and clinical
concepts in prenatal, delivery, and postnatal care were taught
to 75 women. Through this pilot program it became clear that
the many cultural taboos regarding the birth process and toward
hospital-based care are major obstacles to prenatal care and
safe deliveries. |
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What Terma has done to address the problem: As a result,
Terma seeks to improve delivery outcomes by providing at-risk
women of childbearing age with prenatal vitamins, maternal and
infant nutrition education, and lactation education. We now
focus on obtaining vitamin donations, identifying lactation
specialists to encourage culturally acceptable lactation practices,
and obtaining simple diagnostic tools, such as stethoscopes,
thermometers, and blood pressure cuffs, for village health workers
to identify high-risk pregnancies and life-threatening post
partum and neonatal infections. |
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Next steps: By clarifying the major obstacles to women's
health care, we will make cultural adaptations and begin to
implement low-tech interventions for pregnant and lactating
women. These interventions include health education for mothers
and health workers, prenatal vitamins, and support of optimal
breastfeeding practices.
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