Train midwives to help 4600 children in Cambodia

Day or night, Preyvlhear Health Centre is always busy, with women delivering their babies. Recently the project helped Nol Soka, a 31 year old woman, who came into the centre at about 6 pm. After five hours in labour, the midwife started to worry for the health of the mother and unborn child, and so decided that Nol needed to go to Takeo Hospital. Because of the project’s provision of tuk-tuks to the health centres, Nol was able to go to the hospital without a problem and for free. Drivers of our tuk-tuks work around the clock in order to be on site in case of a problem. Takeo Hospital is about an hour and a half away – without the tuk-tuks, women in labour would have no choice but to take the risk and deliver their baby in the health centres. For normal labours this is ok, but any problems at all really do need to be dealt with in the hospital. Our driver drove Nol to hospital at 11 pm, and this strong woman, after 10 hours of labour, nearly 2 hours of which was on a tuk-tuk, delivered a healthy strong baby girl at about 3 am. Nol is so grateful: she had considered going by motorbike because she couldn’t see another option – imagine how uncomfortable that would have been. The women who live in Preyvlhear place great importance on having a tuk-tuk ambulance at the health centre. Our project officer said ‘to other people, a tuk-tuk might not mean anything, but to the people in this village it means a whole lot more”. For Nol, it was the difference between life or death of her and her baby girl. Your support of this project has contributed towards this availability of ambulances and will continue to do so in every health centre we work in.  

Links:

• www.childreach.org.uk

Our project ‘Training Midwives to Help 4600 Children in Cambodia’ is progressing well and is now approaching the end of its one year plan to reach more pregnant women and new mothers through giving local midwives the skills, equipment, and enthusiasm for visiting mothers before their delivery date, facilitating a safe labour, and checking on both mother and baby after the birth.

A significant milestone has been met over the summer: every single baby born was delivered in the health centre, which possibly saved the lives of both mothers and babies, and certainly increased the likelihood of healthy deliveries. The midwives whom this project is supporting went and checked up on every new mother and baby once they were back at home. The average number of times each pregnant woman came to the health centre was four times - demonstrating that the community education we've been carrying out has really made a difference.

The Tuk-Tuks were used 14 times to transfer pregnant women to hospital. This not only saves families the costs of renting a car, but also reduces the time taken to get to hospitals - before, women used to wait at least an hour - a long time when an unborn baby is in distress. We're very happy with the sustainability of these Tuk-Tuks - the health centres have managed to find the funds to pay for fuel and maintenance - which will mean that they'll continue operating long after the project ends.

Training of the midwives recruited continues: every month a meeting takes place in which midwives' skills and knowledge is refreshed, particularly on what the symptoms are in pregnant women and babies of any condition that could be harmful.

We'd like to tell the stories of Sokchea and Nub Ra, which wil hopefully demonstrate how the project goes further than just ensuring a safe delivery - our post-natal health checks allow project staff to assess the general wellbeing of the family and see what can be done to help even more.

Sokchea's Story

Sokchea, aged 32, Prey Vihea, Cambodia:

Sokchea and her eight family members all live in the same cottage, with its leaky roof. Life is pretty hard, with Sokchea struggling to pay for food and children’s learning materials. However, Sokchea is not the kind of person who gives up easily. People say that she is a strong woman. Sokchea has one simple wish of getting enough food each day and seeing her children graduate and make their own way in the world.  

Sokchea’s youngest child is 2 months old and was delivered at Prey Vihea health center, where our partner Women’s Health Cambodia (WHC) works. Soon after she had returned home with the newborn baby, one of the midwives went to give her and the baby a post-natal check. The midwife was much aggrieved at the small size of the cottage and urged the other members of our partner to consider helping the family. This was agreed, and WHC has now provided food, a new building, and general support to the family.

Nub Ra's Story

Nub Ra, aged 25, Korng Pisey, Cambodia

Nub Ra’s baby’s is now 2 months and 1 week old. She was delivered in Prey Vihea health center with the help of our partner Women’s Health Cambodia (WHC). The baby was in good health with a ‘cracked mouth’. WHC had heard that treatment was available in Takeo Hospital, from a charity providing free services. We let Nub Ra know who was so happy. As a farmer, Nub Ra couldn’t afford to pay for the food, transportation and accommodation involved in the trip, so WHC has agreed to transport her to Takeo hospital via Tuk Tuk. Normally these vehicles are used to help WHC midwives perform post-natal checks. In October, the operation will take place.  Transport is still a major problem for people in community especially in remote area. Another Tuk Tuk and midwife is needed to expand our work. WHC’s team are ideally placed to link women in the community with services available. Without this information from a midwife supported by Childreach International,  Nub Ra would never have known about the
opportunity.

We hope you find these stories as inspirational as we do and can contribute towards the project's crucial work in making childbirth into an occasion for joy rather than fear. Don't forget to re-visit us on the 17th October, as soon after 5.01 am (UK time) as possible, where your donation will be 30% matched by GlobalGiving.