Maternal Health

Mercy Corps has implemented comprehensive, maternal health programming since 1997 and measurably improved health and survival in Guatemala, Honduras, Kosovo, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Eritrea, and Indonesia. We are driven by the understanding that healthy mothers, as primary caretakers, form the bedrock of good family and community health. Our programming in this area emphasizes knowledge transfer and behavior change and seeks to:

Increase the capacity of mothers to improve their health Advance health workers’ ability to meet the needs of the community Provide medical equipment and pharmaceuticals Foster social support for mothers

What We Do

Women’s capacity to improve their health during critical childbearing years is forwarded through community- based education on nutrition, family planning, reproductive health, hygiene, infectious disease prevention and treatment for diseases such as HIV, tuberculosis and malaria. We encourage prenatal iron- folate supplementation and the seeking of prompt care when dangerous complications arise during pregnancy or delivery.

Health workers train in these same areas. Wherever possible, we work with the traditional roles of health service providers and build upon their existing strengths. In most communities, traditional birth attendants play a key role in maternal health. By offering attendants trainings in pregnancy and delivery complications, and the warning signs thereof, knowledge and efficacy are increased while respect for cultural norms is maintained.

In addition to the human resources of a community, medical supplies and equipment are vital to preventing and managing illness. Mercy Corps equips clinics with everything from basic equipment such as hospital beds to supplies such as medicine and IV’s.

Social support is also integral to good health, particularly when its absence directly impedes women from receiving services. One practice we implement in this area is the use of “cultural brokers”. In regions where cultural and language barriers are present, we cultivate programs that encourage women of majority ethnic groups to provide language and cultural support to women of minority groups, with the result that minority women are more likely to access and benefit from services.

Where We Work

To date Mercy Corps has implemented more than 148 community health programs in 32 countries around the world. Here is a sample of some of our Maternal Health programming.

Guatemala

In the municipality of Tucurú in north central Guatemala, where over 82 percent of the population lives in poverty and 48 percent live in extreme poverty, both of which far exceed the national averages, we have been working since 2001 to improve maternal health. We are helping to provide access to information on healthy practices in family planning and prevention of sexually transmitted infections, as well as access to quality health services. We work at a community and an institutional level to actively involve medical teams, traditional midwives, community facilitators, community health committees, community development councils, and the local health association in the provision of improved health services, education, and community mobilization. The project has had considerable impact on strengthening the organization, participation, and empowerment of the people of Tucurú to identify local solutions to improve their health and the health of their community. Since the project began we have expanded our work to all of the communities of Tucurú and the percentage of families using family planning and women who recognize danger signs during pregnancy and birth has increased substantially.

Niger

Mercy Corps is working with Nigerian women to help them recognize maternal health threats and symptoms of illness and understand how to take immediate action when symptoms are identified. Through the use of a variety of creative approaches, including street theater, home visits and radio broadcasts, we are helping to empower women and families with knowledge that is saving lives. In the Northern Filingue Department we have distributed adult scales to feeding centers and have built the capacity of health centers to diagnose and admit malnourished pregnant and lactating women for feeding and treatment and offer family planning services.

Pakistan

In Pakistan, Mercy Corps is implementing a focused mass media campaign to educate communities on the benefits of birth spacing and modern contraceptive methods to maternal health. Having children too closely together has been shown to negatively affect a woman’s energy, weight and body mass index, which in turn negatively affect fetal nutrition and growth, and premature delivery and infant survival. By educating the community on these issues and the availability of family planning services, demand for services will increase and women will wait longer after the birth of one child to have another. We have also initiated educational efforts with providers to improve the quality of health and family planning services and thereby increase the likelihood that they will be accessed.