Day 4 Training of Trainers

We had a busy final day of the Training of Trainer's program here in Nimba County, Liberia.  We started the afternoon off by reviewing everything we had learned this week by role playing a complete birth.  The participants broke up into teams of three and took turns playing one of three roles- mother, healthcare worker, or family member.  We then worked through scenarios giving the mother a role to play and having her partners support her.  In between each scene, we heard from our "moms" about what their caregivers did that they found effective, then everyone switched roles.  It was a fun way to bring the week together.  After the "baby was born," we moved on to discuss afterbirth comfort measures and the newborn.  We also covered ways that one can process the birth experience by looking at the event as a story and focusing on the changes, significant moments, and the ending.  This measure can help reinforce positive impressions of the birth experience and address negative impressions by giving information and validating the women's experience.  The final unit covered training others, and we talked about the basics of adult education, learning tasks, and took down names of those who would be interested in doing the first training for their peers in (hopefully) July.  We then did a post-test and an evaluation of the program overall.  This information will help us make next weeks program even stronger.  Finally, the participants set goals for 3 weeks, 3 months, and 3 years.  We're excited about meeting some of the Trained Traditional Midwives tomorrow and hope that both groups will be able to learn from one another, and we from them.