Training midwives
By the request of the government of South Sudan, AMREF has recently started training community midwives.
South Sudan has the highest number of pregnancy-related deaths in the world – 2 in every 100 pregnancies. This is hardly surprising in a country where about 1000 midwives serve a population of around 10 million people.
Women die needlessly of conditions that would be easily treatable if trained staff were available. Women often travel for miles to reach a trained midwife, by foot or on the back of a bicycle, only to die or to lose their child on the way.
AMREF is currently training midwives in Yei, Lui, and Maridi. We prioritze the training of candidates from remote rural areas with no midwives.
The 18-month training course has both practical and classroom-based elements. The trainees learn to manage common complications during delivery, such as high blood pressure, excessive bleeding, or retained placenta, as well as give the mothers pre-natal and post-natal advice. They are also trained to recognize signs of more severe complications and are able to refer women to better equipped facilities.
Under close supervision, trainees are instructed on how to deliver babies in order to prepare them for work in their own communities.
<< Back to What we do
<< Back to Train health workers
