Global Partners in Hope is excited to announce a new midwife program and partnership opportunity through the hospital in Mali to sponsor continuing education and advanced degrees for those currently working with our partner organization, CPAM. The objective of the program is not only to educate staff and improve the level of care that they provide, but also to relieve their financial burden by funding their education as well as allowing them to continue to work part-time while retaining their regular salary through CPAM.
The hospital will be sending one Malian obstetric nurse to midwifery school and one nurse’s aide to nursing school each year through donations to Global Partners in Hope. The beneficiaries of this scholarship are chosen after a series of peer reviews, seniority, as well as testing and interviews by the Malian leadership. Midwife Sheri MacLean described the recipients as “people who the Malians identify as very passionate and want to encourage them in their studies.”
The staff that works at the hospital in women’s health, labor and delivery, and pediatric care are the key to everything that is done. Currently in the country of Mali, one in ten women will die due to a complication during labor. Most of these deaths occur due to simple complications that are easily treatable, or even preventable, with the correct medical training. While already making a tremendous impact on the country, the hospital has the goal of sending staff to school to get higher levels of training in order to ultimately lead to fewer unnecessary deaths in Mali and better outcomes for women and children.
One example from the hospital in Mali was a woman who had previously lost several babies in labor. Over the years she had carried eight pregnancies to term, but each baby died during delivery. She came to the hospital looking for help and the midwife working was able to diagnose the woman with rheumatic heart disease, a disease that comes from untreated strep throat, which was ultimately the cause of the many failed deliveries. During labor, the woman was becoming too fatigued because her heart could not handle the stress and consequently the babies were not being delivered quickly enough for survival.
Ultimately, thanks to the Koutiala Hospital for Women and Children, on her ninth pregnancy, the midwife was able to use equipment to aid in the birth, and after all of the sadness that the woman had faced, she was able to welcome her first child into the world.
This is just one example of the power of a properly trained midwife to save a life.
As the school year starts, the two new students from the hospital begin their advanced degrees. With this encouraging program, we hope to see future success and progress in the country of Mali.
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