AWC delivers 780 babies between January and April

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Fri, 2016-05-06 12:32 — Mohamed S

The world yesterday commemorated the International Midwifery Day. To mark this day on the theme ‘Women and Babies’, Aberdeen Women Center (AWC) took part in the celebration with pregnant women and outreach sensitisation in the community.
Olivia Hill, Clinical Director of AWC, disclosed to Awoko that the Center that the centre was to deliver a total 780 babies between January and April 2016 under EmONC. Of these, 655 were normal deliveries and 125 were operative deliveries in the Caesarean Section and this is rated at 19%”.

She said “the reduction of the maternal mortality ratio and the neonatal mortality ratio in the country stood at 1,100 per 100,000 (1.1%) and 44 per 1,000 (4.4%) respectively. From January to April 2016, we only reported 2 maternal deaths and 2 neonatal deaths out of 655 births and our maternal death rate for the period stands at 0.3% and the neonatal death rate at 0.3%”, adding that with the above comparison, the AWC has “maintained rates much lower than the overall national rate”.
AWC is a locally registered INGO providing maternity services including antenatal, postnatal clinics, Family Planning Services ????Female Genital Mutilation Advocacy and since it started operations it has increased and improved access to antenatal, antepartum, postnatal and neonatal care for women in Aberdeen and its surroundings.
As there is the need to invest in improving the education and increasing the number of midwives, the Clinical Director said “we support the training of student midwives from both Makeni and Freetown School of Midwifery, the organization, CappaCare also sends Community Health Officers to receive practical mentorship in obstetrics”.
About staffing at the Center, Hill said “we have 16 permanent staff midwives, supported by eight on call midwives, 5 States Enrolled Community Health Nurses (SECHN) and three nursing aides. The maternal health services are supported with two National Doctors, three on call doctors and one international Gynaecologist”.
She said the main goal of the maternity unit is to provide quality free health care in line with the government of Sierra Leone free health care policy “AWC focuses on providing high standards in midwifery through development of good and appropriate clinical practices that meet international standards”.
She said all of the services provided in the center are free for all patients and after delivery they encourage all patients both mothers and babies are asked to return to the clinic for postnatal care, “but the number of patients that do actually return to our centre are generally low. Therefore, we need to emphasize the importance of postnatal care with clear and concise health education messages, during antenatal care and immediately after delivery”.
Patricia Sandy, a midwife and Assistant Supervisor at the Center, said they are working to reduce maternal death and this occurs mainly among the poor and less privileged and that fistula is a major challenge they are faced with and this happens because delivery is done by non-skilled people and they also want to reduce this fistula, that was why the center was opened.
She said they are happy for the day as they appreciate the work they are doing, helping in the reduction of maternal and neonatal death.
On the working condition, Sandy said they are working under favourable condition since all materials that aid them in their work are available. Also, they have the opportunity to attend in house training which helps them in their work “but we don’t benefit from training organised by the government and we really need to be part of these trainings”.
By Betty Milton
Friday May 06, 2016