Maternal and neonatal health education
The Female&Family[e]Education course provides continuous education for healthcare professionals working in the field of maternal and newborn health. The aim of the course is to reduce maternal and newborn mortality and morbidity rates by strengthening the knowledge and capacity of healthcare professionals. The course was originally developed for midwives in Rwanda and was adapted to meet the needs of Ethiopian healthcare professionals in 2018 and 2019. It was adapted and translated for the Surinamese context in 2020.
This course improves the knowledge, skills and capacity of maternal health professionals who are empowered to provide a higher quality of care to their clients, leading to improved maternal and neonatal health outcomes.
Training for maternal healthcare professionals
The target group for this course are healthcare professionals working in maternal and newborn health in resource-restricted settings such as Rwanda, Ethiopia and Suriname. The healthcare professionals include midwives, nurses, gynecologists, obstetricians, general practitioners and health officers. The WHO estimates that 7,000 newborns and 810 women die every day due to preventable pregnancy-related causes. This awful statistic and the lack of ongoing training for maternal healthcare professionals means that improved training of this group of essential workers is urgently needed.
“This online training brings me so much. I can update myself at any time and any place, no limitations. I can help myself and my clients by using this new knowledge.”
Modules and focus areas
The course comprises 14 modules on pregnancy and childbirth, major causes of maternal and newborn complications, morbidity and deaths.
- Focused antenatal care
- Labor and birth: part 1 normal labor and delivery
- Labor and birth: part 2 abnormal labor and birth
- Labor and birth: part 3 complications before labor
- Postpartum hemorrhage
- Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy
- Maternal infections
- Healthy newborns and resuscitation
- Newborns at risk of complications
- Breastfeeding
- Family planning
- Prevention of mother to child transmission Ethiopia
- Sexually transmitted infections
- Cervical cancers
The e-learning program contains globally accepted, evidence-based information and guidelines. The information and guidelines are reviewed to ensure that they are appropriate for the country where the e-learning is offered. Adaptations to the content provided by the original authors are made by local experts.
Implementation and impact in Rwanda, Ethiopia and Suriname
The Female&Family[e]Education program has been successfully implemented in Rwanda, Ethiopia and Suriname. Over 1,000 maternal health professionals have been trained. They have applied their enhanced knowledge and skills in their daily practice in maternity wards in hospitals, clinics and other health facilities, thus contributing to improved maternal and neonatal health outcomes. These implementation experiences have proved that an adapted Female&Family[e]Education course can have an impact in new countries and in new training programs. CTA: For more information about this e-learning course, contact us!
