Helping babies in Kenya survive the USAID cuts

Brighter Communities Worldwide’s way of working is in partnership with communities, county health authorities and frontline health workers to deliver practical, community-driven solutions. Maternal and child health is a central priority for us as the wellbeing of mothers and children is the foundation to healthy families and resilient communities.  We work alongside communities, Community Health Promotors and health facilities to improve access to antenatal, delivery and postnatal care, with a particular focus on reaching women facing economic, geographic and social barriers. 

We thank you for your vital support of this project and we are pleased to bring you an update from Helen Akinyiis, the Nurse in Charge of Ndubusat clinic.

To improve community access to health information and the availability of Maternal Newborn & Child Health Services, Community Health Promoters, Community Health Committees, and a selection of community members attend maternal, health courses.  In the last three months, BCW have managed to support six 1-day trainings reaching out to 87 participants (32 men and 55 women).  

These one-day sessions focus on increasing awareness of the importance of skilled care during pregnancy, family planning, quality antenatal care, clean and safe delivery and access to essential obstetric care for high risk pregnancies and postnatal care.

Community Health Promoters are later trained on Ante-Natal Care (ANC) tracker system which enables them to track and support mothers through their pregnancy and delivery of their baby. They ensure the mothers will attend 4 ANC visits, often accompanying them to the clinic. This means that pregnant women access necessary health care services and support they need for safe healthy pregnancy leading to improved pregnancy outcomes.

Support supervision was conducted as follow up to identify challenges and gaps between the community and linked health facilities that hinder the uptake of ANC services, in particular the recommended 4 ANC visits for pregnant mothers. In the last 3 months, six support supervision visits were carried out.  Key challenges identified were – teenage mothers shying away from ANC clinics and lack of identity cards among community members which means they can’t access medical services.

Through outreach clinics, mothers from hard-to-reach areas are able to access ante-natal care services thus improving maternal health outcomes.

Community Health Promoter Caroline says - “There is positive improvement of mothers attending at least 4 ANC visits due to the introduction of ANC tracking and Line listing in my community.” 

Public Health officer Gladys says - “Mothers are now attending ANC early, reducing immunisation defaulters, ANC defaulters and home deliveries.”