July 18, 2016

Important new partnership with Ethiopian Midwives Association

Partnership with Ethiopian Midwives Association

Maternity Foundation and Ethiopian Midwives Association (EMwA) have entered an important partnership on developing a Continuous Professional Development (CPD) program for midwives in Ethiopia. The CPD program is to make use of innovative learning principles, in order to minimize the need for conventional class-room trainings. The Safe Delivery App offers this opportunity, and will be an integrated part of the CPD curriculum.

Ethiopian Midwives Association (EMwA) is a national professional organization that works to enhance the performance and status of the midwifery profession in Ethiopia through education, advocacy and research. The Safe Delivery App – developed by Copenhagen University, University of Southern Denmark and Maternity Foundation – is a smart-phone based application offering animated instruction videos and other features on life-saving obstetric skills.

“The Safe Delivery App is a great tool to improve maternal health in Ethiopia. Most midwives, if not all, have a mobile, so the accessibility is very high. It is easy to use, because it is supported by animations and videos. In addition, it is using local language”, says Meaza Semaw, CPD Coordinator, from the Ethiopian Midwives Association.

Commissioned by the Ethiopian government, EMwA is currently developing educational materials for the continuous professional development training program that all midwives must be able to access in order to obtain credits for their mandatory re-licensing every fifth year to ensure that their skills and knowledge are kept up-to-date. The Safe Delivery App will be integrated into the curriculum of this Continuous Professional Development Program.

Maternity Foundation and EMwA are currently working together to develop the curriculum for post-natal care with integration of the Safe Delivery App.

“The collaboration with EMwA is essential to us, as EMwA develops and implements programs and training materials as an affiliate the Ministry of Health and for the whole country. Through our partnership with EMwA, we can therefore contribute to ensuring safer births for mothers and babies at a national scale in Ethiopia, which is our core mission” says Anne Marie Frøkjær Barrie, Head of Development Programs at Maternity Foundation.

The Continuous Professional Development program is presently undergoing accreditation and will be launched in 2017.

Maternity Foundation has made a commitment through Every Woman Every Child to reach 10,000 health workers with the app by end 2017 – thereby ensuring a safer birth for nearly 1 million women across Africa and Southeast Asia.

(Photo: Mulugeta Wolde)