{In partnership with the Rwanda Biomedical Center through its maternal and child health unit, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ubuzima Project, and Health[e] Foundation; nurses, midwives and maternal health counselors have started a three month online maternal and neonatal refresher courses. }
Speaking on the occasion of the kickoff of this course on Tuesday, 28th October 2014, Dr. Nadine Pakker from the Health [e] Foundation a project based in the University of Amsterdam, Holland said that they organized this course to upgrade the skills of midwives, nurses and health professionals involved in maternal and child health in order to refresh their skills to further improve maternal and neonatal services in hospitals and health centers.
“Through the project “Health[e] Families, participants will improve knowledge on management of reproductive and maternal health for community members and to improve knowledge on maternal health care delivery for midwives in Rwanda and this will be done by training both midwives/nurse-midwives and community workers through blended learning” Dr. Nadine Pakker explained.
“Previously, we have offered courses on infectious diseases and HIV/AIDS management. However, we have found it important to also consider the area of reproductive health and safe motherhood since maternal and child mortality and morbidity in the low resources countries emerge among the leading causes of death and handicaps,” she revealed.
She further added that the course is the first blended e-learning course of its kind focusing on maternal and neonatal issues. She called upon participants to take time and read resources of the course. He stressed that collaboration and peer discussions among participants will help to understand more the course.
Dr. Brenda Kateera Asiimwe who spoke on behalf of the College of Medicine and Health Sciences came back on the burden of maternal and child health mortality and morbidity. According to the Rwanda Demographic Health Survey conducted in 2010, the country’s maternal mortality ratio stood at 476/100,000 live births. Among the leading causes of maternal deaths include post partum hemorrhage, sepsis and induced abortions.
She called participants to play a big role in keeping on improving maternal and child health outcomes in their service delivery and community outreach. Talking on the significance of this refresher course, she called participants to study it diligently and added that the knowledge to acquire will help improve reproductive health services in Rwanda. “We hope that it will help you refresh your knowledge and skills and further enable you to help mothers the role of antenatal and postnatal care as well as delivering in the hands of skilled attendants. To achieve this requires your active role in bettering maternal and neonatal as well as other safe motherhood services you offer to your clients”, she urged them.
During a three months period, participants will learn tips on offering focused antenatal care, handling complicated labor and delivery, managing post partum hemorrhage, breastfeeding, detecting cervical cancer among women and offering family planning services among other safe motherhood and reproductive health issues. Participants will be logging in to follow the courses using flash disks or via the website. Modules are expected to have been completed by February, 2015. Participants who will have completed all course modules with an average 60% and who were in the kickoff and end of the course shall be awarded a certificate from the University of Amsterdam.
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