Women and children are disproportionately affected by poor health outcomes in developing countries. In line with the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, Direct Relief places high priority on improving the health of these most vulnerable populations by working with programs emphasizing maternal and child health.
The increasing problem of maintaining maternal and child health can be aided by implementing simple, inexpensive interventions in various locations around the world with a special emphasis placed on assistance programs supporting primary and secondary level health facilities and programs in impoverished areas.
Direct Relief is honored to work with over 130 partners worldwide who focus on improving health care access and services for women and children. Direct Relief has formulated maternal and child health (MCH) programs that focus on improving essential medical services for women and children, including prenatal care, safe delivery, care for low-birthweight babies, and access to basic medicines, supplies, and nutritional support for newborns and their mothers.
These are fundamental elements of health and medical services for women and children, but we and the partners we work with also recognize that many other issues – income status, legal status, water and sanitation, basic nutrition, and education – also profoundly affect the health of women and children.
In 2006, Direct Relief began a project to strengthen MCH services in high-need areas with local partners that are deeply involved in the specific health and medical issues as well as the related issues affecting women’s and children’s health in their communities.
The project involves providing to these partners specialized MCH modules of diagnostic equipment, surgical hardware and supplies, and related medicines, general supplies, and nutritional supplements. The resources help these partners build upon their existing innovation and deep commitment and model excellence in very difficult circumstances.
The modules are tailored in collaboration with the partners and cost approximately $22,000 each. They include core items such as ultrasounds, fetal monitors, birthing beds, incubators, baby scales, as well as upgrades to the surgical environment and provision of basic medicines and supplies. Five MCH modules were furnished in early 2006.
Concurrent with strengthening these partners’ capacity to improve services, Direct Relief will continue to devote our efforts to Mother and child health. We believe strongly that programs such as these are assisting in the lowering rate of neonatal deaths and stillbirths in developing countries in recent years. Direct Relief will continue to gather information on the effects of these simple interventions to inform our future actions on how to improve the health status of women and children because mother and child health lies at the heart of a strong community. Improvements in maternal health benefit not only a newborn child, but also positively affect the social and economic stability of the entire society.
Examples of Direct Relief's Maternal and Child Health Assistance
EL SALVADOR - The Salvadorian Foundation (FUSAL)
The Unidad Salud Luis Poma medical clinic located in the town of San Julian, El Salvador serves an AmerIndian population of 40,000 whose ancestry goes back to the pre-Colombian Yaqui and Pipil tribes. The clinic focuses on primary care services with an emphasis on maternal-child health and is administered by The Salvadorian Foundation (FUSAL), a longstanding Direct Relief partner that it has collaborated with on many occasions.
Direct Relief designed an MCH module for this facility, to upgrade and expand their prenatal, delivery services, and neo-natal services. A January 2006 provision of aid contained an ultrasound unit, a fetal monitor, birthing beds, baby incubators, adult and baby scales, exam tables, and other patient examination equipment and supplies. The facility will now be able to offer OB/GYN services to a larger number of women and children, with an anticipated 21,000 pre- and post-natal checkups.
FUSAL responded to the new equipment by committing to increase maternal-child health-related staff by hiring an OB/GYN, additional nurses, and midwives.