Educating Guatemalan Birth Attendants
Area of Focus: Saving mothers and children
Host Sponsor: Las Americas Rotary Club of Guatemala City, Guatemala
International Sponsor: Madison West Towne-Middleton Rotary Club
Proposed Budget: $84,609 for a Vocational Training Team in October, 2019
Background:
- The neonatal mortality rate in Guatemala is 15 babies per 1000 live births.
- Seventy-five percent of those babies die within their first 24 hours of life.
- The maternal mortality rate is approximately 120 women per 100,000 live births.
- The maternal mortality rate is 3 times higher among indigenous Mayan women.
Vocational training teams will train birth attendants and equip them with supplies. Master Trainers will be trained and equipped with mannequins and teaching materials.Trainers utilize two programs: Helping Mothers Survive and Helping Babies Survive which were developed specifically for use in low-resource countries around the world and have been used successfully since 2010.
By creating a self-sustaining program using the “Train the Trainer” model, this project will build the capacity of indigenous birth attendants, thereby allowing them to provide evidence-based care to women and babies in their communities to improve birth outcomes. Birth attendants trained as Master Trainers will provide education to other birth attendants, expanding the project scope and sustainability