Maternal and Newborn Health in Ethiopia Partnership

The Maternal and Newborn Health in Ethiopia Partnership (MaNHEP), based at Emory University’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, is a two-and-a-half year initiative to demonstrate a community-oriented model for improving maternal and newborn health (MNH) care in rural Ethiopia. The project works in six districts in Oromia and Amhara Regions to strengthen the delivery of MNH services during the birth-to-48 hour period when mothers and newborns are most vulnerable.^[1] Training activities focus on improving the skills of health workers to deliver these services. Other efforts seek to increase demand for MNH services by pregnant women and promote healthy self-care behaviors that can improve newborn survival. Finally, a continuous quality improvement approach will be applied to strengthen district-level health systems to identify best MNH service delivery practices at the community level that can be spread to other regions and districts in Ethiopia. With more women and newborns receiving MNH care, a reduction in maternal and newborn mortality rates is expected to occur over time.^[2]

More than 90 percent of births in Ethiopia take place in the home.^[3] MaNHEP’s goal is to build capacity and performance of frontline health workers to deliver a basic set of interventions in the home that can reduce newborn mortality rates by more than one-third.^[4] In addition, community and family members who attend home births receive training in clean and safe delivery practices, as well as how to identify complications that require skilled care.^[5]

MaNHEP is a partnership among the Ethiopian Ministry of Health, Emory University, JSI Research and Training Institute, University Research Comany LLC, Addis Ababa University and Bahir Dar University in Ethiopia. The project was launched in 2009 and is led by its Director Lynn Sibley, an Emory faculty member. The project is funded by an $8.1-million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.^[6]

References

1. ^ http://www.jsi.com/JSIInternet/Projects/ListProjects.cfm?dblProjDescID=4661&Select=One
2. ^ http://www.urc-chs.com/news/news_MaNHEP.html
3. ^ http://whsc.emory.edu/home/publications/nursing/emory-nursing/winter2010/research-milestone.html?researchnews
4. ^ http://shared.web.emory.edu/whsc/news/releases/2009/11/nursing-school-receives-8-million-dollar-gates-grant.html
5. ^ http://whsc.emory.edu/home/publications/health-sciences/health-sciences-update/2009_11_13.html
6. ^ http://whsc.emory.edu/home/publications/health-sciences/health-sciences-update/2009_11_13.html