CIRHT’s pre-service approach is improving family planning education for nursing, midwifery and medical students and residents is affecting services and contributing to reducing the ratios of maternal mortality and morbidity in Ethiopia.
(CIRHT)–“One woman from the area came in. She was having her 10th baby. The subject of contraception was not raised at all. I asked the local staff and they told me ‘Most clients do not accept contraception. So since this is our experience, we should not waste our time counseling.’ Then I raised the issue with her. She asked us for bilateral tubal ligation.”
That’s a testimony from Dr. Abel Teshome, an OB-Gyn at Haramaya University’s Hiwot Fana Specialized Hospital in Harar in eastern Ethiopia. He was in the first graduating class of OB-Gyn residents from St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College (SPHMMC) in July 2016. He brought that pre-service training in family planning with him from Addis Ababa to Harar, and is helping to implement changes to the culture of care for girls and women seeking comprehensive and compassionate service.
It’s one example of how the pre-service approach to improving family planning education for nursing, midwifery and medical students and residents is affecting services and contributing to reducing the ratios of maternal mortality and morbidity in the country. The Center for International Reproductive Health Training at the University of Michigan (CIRHT) has partnered with 10 medical schools across Ethiopia over the past four years to help implement that pre-service approach.
While individual incidents like that of Dr. Teshome occur every day, the Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) has recognized the importance of CIRHT’s work nationwide. Recently, when he was still in office, former Minister of Health Professor Yifru Berhan Mitke thanked CIRHT for its “profound contributions” in strengthening the health system ”to provide all ranges of reproductive health care, particularly that of comprehensive contraception and safe abortion services… This implementation method of CIRHT not only is cost-effective and result-oriented, it also insures country ownership and sustainability.”
Dr. Mitke credited CIRHT’s successful implementation as forming the basis for helping the FMOH secure significant additional funding. The program will “give millions of women access to modern, voluntary family planning services across the country.”
“We are proud that our partner institutions have seen such great results for their faculty, students and the populations they serve. This recognition from the ministry is very meaningful to us, and affirms the vision of our founder Dr. Senait Fisseha when she established CIRHT and its approach,” said Janet Hall, CIRHT Managing Director.
When CIRHT first partnered with SPHMMC, the initial phase of implementation was so successful that nine more university medical schools chose to introduce the pre-service training into their curricula. 18 months later, eight nursing and midwifery schools signed on.
Read the complete story at CIRHT