AMERICAN GENEROSITY IMPROVING WOMEN’S HEALTH IN ETHIOPIA

FEBRUARY 14, 2012 | SARAH SAGELY KLOTZ

Childbirth should be a joyful occasion, when a new life is welcomed into the world. Instead, in many places in the world it is one of the most dangerous things a woman can do. Unfortunately, around the globe women are often neglected and have very limited access to maternal care. Through the generous investments made by many Americans, however, communities in developing countries are yielding substantial and lasting benefits.

In a country like Ethiopia, access to maternal health care is extremely limited. Each year 20,000 women die in childbirth and 77 babies out of 1,000 live births don’t survive. In America, 99% of women give birth with a skilled health professional while in Ethiopia, only 6% of women give birth with a skilled health professional. This contrast of access to care is astounding.

I recently traveled with a group of American moms to Bahir Dar, in the northern region of Ethiopia, an area where access to maternal care is almost nonexistent. The regional hospital, which serves a population of 20 million people, does not have one full-time Ob-Gyn. While this fact is overwhelming to the senses, we are beginning to witness how private investments are building maternal care capacity and producing tremendous results.

Fran Cox, Amy Bradley, Yingesu, Addis, Sue Green, Mantegbosh, and Midwifery Supervisor Sister Hirut

We visited two young midwives, Yingesu and Mantegbosh, who were working at the Agita Health Center, 42 miles from Bahir Dar. This small clinic is serving a population of 51,000 people. Both of these midwives were provided scholarships by generous donors who saw their potential and recognized the impact they could make in their communities. In their first year, they made over 100 deliveries and provided approximately 1,000 women with prenatal care, thus increasing access to maternal care in the region by over 90%. Yingesu had recently delivered successfully triplets by candlelight. She said, “My hope for the future is to help my community, and I am proud of my job…I feel fantastic because I can save the lives of women and children!”

In Ethiopia, the cost to educate one midwife is $4,300 per year for four years, but the investment has a multiplying effect. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has stated that “improving the health and status of women and girls acts as a positive multiplier because when women succeed, they lift themselves, they lift their families and their communities along with them.” These investments made in the lives of women now will bring extensive and lasting results to communities and countries as a whole in the developing world.

Check out more from the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition: www.usglc.org/

On October 15, 2011 the Hamlin College of Midwives graduated our second class of midwives.  Eleven midwives are already back in their communities for 2010 and now these thirteen graduates from the class of 2011 are now deployed back to their communities to provide maternal care to rural Ethiopian women.  As they look forward to beginning their careers as midwives in rural Ethiopia, one of the graduates Seada said, “I am very happy to become a Midwife and I believe this profession is so important in my country because there are a lot of problems: my first action in my profession is to educate my community on Health. Make them to have awareness on their health especially women.”

Another graduate Ayantu said, “Now I am very happy and I like my profession greater than other health profession. It is very nice for me to know how to support and encourage the woman with labor, delivery and during antenatal care. Always I remember my mother when I see the laboring mother. I have to be responsible for my community after my graduation.”

Dr. Catherine Hamlin spoke to the graduates, “I feel proud of you all and thankful that you are now well equipped to embark on your chosen career to help women in labor living in the countryside of Ethiopia – Women who in the past have had little help when delivering a baby and whose need is indeed great. Now at last help for them is on the way. You have had a great midwifery course; you have each had many deliveries some 60 – 70! During this course – you have seen nearly every complication of labor and been taught to be diagnosticians as well as birth attendants – so that you can refer a mother who is in trouble to a “facility” where skilled help is available, even before her labor has begun through clinical signs that you observe in this patient, and that her delivery may not be possible through the normal way, and so you will save some mothers from death and others from a living death of being left with a Vaginal Fistula and a stillborn baby! Thus you will be saving two lives.  You differ from all other branches of nursing – you have two lives to look after and are the means of bringing a new life in to this world!”

In Ethiopia there are approximately 1,500 midwives for a population of 80 million people.  The need to equip well-trained midwives is vital to reduce the maternal mortality rate in Ethiopia and eliminate child birth injuries like obstetric fistula.

We are thrilled that this year we have new midwives who are qualified and enthusiastic to serve their rural communities.  Jacqueline Bernhard, the Dean of the Hamlin College, encouraged the graduates saying, “Our hope is that you, young midwives, will carry the Hamlin name with respect and commitment. Some of your predecessors, last year’s graduated Midwives, have joined us today to celebrate your Graduation. All together you are a new generation of Midwives for Ethiopia and maybe even for neighboring countries.  We are relying on you to take up your responsibilities as young Midwives for your community. As a College, and as the Fistula hospital we have shared our passion for a noble cause with you;  your responsibility today is to take this passion over and to make it yours.”

Check out the accomplishments of our first class of midwives for their first 10 months of deployment!

Midwifery Outcomes 2010

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Photo Lucy Perry/Hamlin Fistula Australia

Catherine Hamlin, an Australian ob-gyn who has spent her career in Ethiopia caring for women with obstetric fistulas and revolutionized fistula care.

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Brett O'Donnell (Board Member of Hamlin Fistula USA), Dr. Hamlin, Oprah Winfrey, Mark Bennett (CEO of Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital)

In February, Dr. Hamlin traveled to Chicago to see Oprah Winfrey during her last season of the Oprah Show.  In 2003, Dr. Hamlin met Oprah and they became fast friends.  Oprah has been an unbelievable supporter of the work of Hamlin Fistula in Ethiopia.  We are saddened to see her inspiring show go off the air but know there is so much in store for our good friend.  We want to wish her all the best in her new endeavors.  In order to see more about Oprah’s trip to the Addis Ababa Hamlin Fistula Hospital Read More.