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Graduation of 22 community midwives

February 4, 2007

The objective from Ministry of Public Health with the Community midwives is to give all women in Afghanistan access to professional caregiver during pregnancy and deliveries in order to reduce the high maternal and child morbidity and mortality in Afghanistan.

Swedish Committee for Afghanistan is the implementing partner for the MoPH of the Basic Packages of Health Services (BPHS) in Wardak Province, Maidan Shar district since March 2004. The Community Midwife Training Programme has been running since November 2004 and is funded by the World Bank.

The Community Midwife Training Programme contains of an 18-months long education where the midwife students have been trained to be skilled birth attendants - how to deploy and primarily serve women and their babies during pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum period and including family planning. All the midwife students have been selected from the communities after fulfilling following criteria’s:

• The students have to be female and 18 years or older
• That they have demonstrated support that communities have approved the selection of students from their community, in the form of a letter from the local Shura or similar body.
• Evidence of a minimum of nine years of education
• Passing mark on the basic entrance exam
• A letter of support from students’ families/husbands stating that they are able to participate fully in the program, working in the hospital on all shifts and be prepared to go back to work in the communities after completed the training.
• The midwife students have been practicing in two District Hospitals - Maidan Shar and Shneez Hospital and in two Comprehensive Health Clinic (CHC) Durani and Kota Eshro clinics in Wardak Province.

SCA has in total trained 40 midwives in Wardak Province. The third batch of midwife students will start in the end of January 2007.

For more information about this project please contact:

Dr Kamela Sair
Community Midwife Training Course Chief Officer Master
kamila.sair@sca.org.af