At the request of the government of Southern Sudan, AMREF has recently started training community midwives.
Southern Sudan has the highest number of pregnancy-related deaths in the world – 2 in every 100 pregnancies. This is hardly surprising in a country where only 20 midwives serve a population of around 10 million people.
Women die needlessly of conditions that would be easily treatable if trained staff were available. Women often travel for miles to reach a trained midwife, by foot or on the back of a bicycle, only to die or to lose their child on the way.
AMREF is currently training 44 midwives in Yei, Lui and Maridi. Candidates from remote rural areas with no midwives are being prioritised for these positions.
The 18-month training course is both practical and classroom-based. The trainees learn to manage common complications during delivery, such as high blood pressure, excessive bleeding, or retained placenta, as well as giving the mothers antenatal and postnatal advice. They are also trained to recognise signs of more severe complications and are able to refer women on to better equipped facilities.
Under close supervision, trainees are also trained to deliver babies in order to prepare them for work back in their communities.