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Clean Birth KitsTraining, Laos: Part 3

IMG_0073So we’ve sent the nurses back to their clinics with the kits!

The nurses will take the kits out to the villages on their scheduled bi-monthly visits. Since only 10-20% give birth in the clinic, they understand that bringing the kits to the villages is critical.
We’ve set up clear reporting procedures, so we can collect data. First, each nurse has a record book to record each mother’s info (12 items) before and after birth. They will also send monthly texts indicating # of kits distributed that month and how many post-partum interviews were conducted.
As another way to check the progress, we are paying one OVA staffer to spend 3 days per month talking to the nurses and villagers of each District about the progress of the kits. Your donated cameras will provide the pictures!
Finally, we are so happy to fund Noy’s work for CleanBirth.org. In her brilliant English, she will email nurses’ texted information and updates/pictures from the field. She will also coordinate the CleanBirth.org-funded re-stock of kits on December 20th. That day all 15 nurses will return to OVA HQ, show their record book, receive kits, a food/transport per diem, and a 120,000 kip ($30) “texting bonus.”

An absolutely wonderful training that exceeded my expectations.  We have empowered these nurses to make birth safer in the over 100 villages that they serve!

Lots to learn from Carol Perks

I am inspired to write about Carol Perks, who works for Save the Children in northern Laos.   Her presentation here is inspirational: she has done so much to make birth … and life … safer for people in the northern Sayaboury Province.

The more I read, they more I know that I have so much to learn from Carol. The systems that she and Lao health workers have set up in the first province is being replicated in a second province.

Here’s a little from this article about her work:

If you want to stop babies becoming sick and dying in remote villages in poverty-stricken Laos, you put your faith in science and pragmatism, not superstition. You set up a primary health-care program. You teach the village midwives to do away with traditional birthing methods: no more cutting the umbilical cord with the first sharp implement to hand…

Lao Donor Gives 5% of Month’s Earnings

anf_baby
The author as a child in Laos

At the beginning of our current crowdfunding campaign I got an email from Anfernee Chansamooth, co-founder, Kaboom Hub.  He offered to donate 5% of one month’s earnings to CleanBirth.org.

We are so grateful.  Read more for his story:

Sabaidee Kristyn,

I first came across Cleanbirth.org through your campaign on
StartSomeGood.com. The campaign struck me because of the wonderful
work that you are doing to help mothers and infants in Laos. I have a personal connection to Laos because my family are from there.

In 2011 I visited my country of birth for the first time after migrating to Australia thirty-three years ago. I visited my late mother’s village and saw the house where she and her many siblings were born and raised. To be able to see what modest means our family came from, and to know that my parents did everything in their power to escape and create a better life for all of us – wow that was both an eye-opening and humbling experience.

I taught at a village school while I was there.  When I researched
statistics about education in Laos and was shocked to learn that many
kids do not make it past primary level education due to lack of quality teachers, funding, and resource challenges – especially in the villages. I consider myself very fortunate to have been given the opportunities that I’ve had in my life.

Sometimes mothers and infants aren’t so fortunate as my mother and I
were. So this is why I feel connected to Cleanbirth.org and the work
that you are doing in Laos.

Last year my business partner Poy and I launched Kaboom Hub. We work with businesses to increase their exposure and get more leads through online marketing. Each month we support a philanthropic organziation by donating 5% of our earnings.

It brings us great personal joy to see what Cleanbirth.org is doing and to be able to support such a worthwhile project.

Best wishes,

Anfernee Chansamooth
Co-founder, Kaboom Hub

New Study: Why Lao Women Choose Homebirth

Wonderful that Vanphanom Sychareun et al bringing attention to the issues surrounding Laos’ high rate of maternal and infant deaths.   Their study “Reasons rural Laotians choose home deliveries over delivery at health facilities: a qualitative study” reveals the reasons for women’s preferences and gives basic recommendations.

The method was focus group discussions (FGD) and in-depth interviews with 71 mothers, husbands and grandmothers.  Reasons for homebirth:

1. Distance and cost of transport

2. Poor treatment/practices like horizontal birth position, episiotomies, no privacy, male staff

3. Desire for family/other children near

4. Desire for traditional birth practices: squatting position and “hot bed” (fire underbed) post-partum

What to do?  Clinics should respect traditions/wishes of mothers.  Further, mothers/family should be educated about high risk pregnancies so that they go to the clinic regardless of preference.

Birth in Laos: 300 Midwives/6.5 mn People

Reading this UNFPA article from 2009 about birth in Laos, I was shocked to see that only 86 midwives were to be found in the whole country.

A later 2012 article shows that, with the inclusion of the first 2 cohorts of midwives trained in decades, the number is around 300.   In training midwives, the government has made a commitment to improving maternal health. Progress is being made but much more needs to be done.

Here’s some points from the articles:

  • Women in rural areas give birth at home to avoid the 3-4 day trek to a hospital or because the rainy season makes travel impossible.
  • Health centers are understaffed and community health workers lack midwifery skills
  •  Laos has the highest rates of maternal death in Southeast Asia
  • 18-20 per cent of all Lao births are attended by health personnel
  • Average day: two families lose a mother and nearly 20 babies are stillborn
  • Each week: 100 infants die many due to insufficient neonatal care
  • 2 per cent of Lao GPD is spent on health
  • A “free” visit to a Lao clinic/hospital can cost a family up to one month’s salary in expenses for transportation, accommodations, food and medicine.

 

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