Pictures from the First Independent Training!

We were lucky enough to be sent some photos of the first independent training done by three wonderful trainers, Alinda, Henrietta, and Samira, from our month in Liberia.  This section included the first 4 days of the longer training and excluded the training of trainers component and the community dialogue, which allowed the program to be compressed into a single all-day training.  The participants were reportedly very engaged, asking great questions throughout.

It looks like everyone had a good time and we are thrilled to see the enthusiasm to help laboring mothers in the health center keep up momentum. One of the participants reported that she was initially not excited to be asked to attend this training as it was her day off, but she ended up enjoying the experience and realized how important this work really is.  There is even talk of integrating some components of this program into the nursing school curriculum after a nurse held an in-service this past Tuesday to demonstrate some new skills.  Way to go Ganta Hospital!

Sustainability

Yesterday, another group was trained by three of our new trainers.  More details to come but I'm told that there was a lot of enthusiasm and everyone had a good time.

Stay tunes for pictures and updates!

Finishing Up

We're back in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia doing some wrap up work.  We have printed the revised trainee manuals to be sent back to Ganta for the July training, and have been talking with Curamericas Liberia about how, if appropriate, the Compassionate Labor program could be rolled out to other communities.  This is an extremely exciting prospect and we are excited to work with our Liberian partners to support them in any way that we can.

We are so grateful to have had the opportunity to live and work in Liberia this past month, and have enjoyed so much getting to know our participants and community members.  While the impact of a project like this one is very difficult to quantify, we'd like to share some of the participant feedback received from anonymous evaluations.

"The training was educational and useful."

"Knowledge gained will improve my care and even encourage mothers to have hospital/facility delivery."

"I want compassionate labor to continue training in Liberia and in the various counties of Liberia."

We would also like to thank our friends and families for supporting us as we undertook this project, and we are excited to see you all soon!

Second Community Dialogue

Today we finished our very last day of programming with the second community dialogue.  Twenty additional TTMs joined our class for the afternoon.  The discussion was similar in content to last week, and one TTM expressed her desire to "open a new book" of relations between the health workers and the TTMs.  This weekend the final report and preparations will be completed as we look forward to the July training.  Our time in Ganta has flown by, and we are sad to leave so many new friends.  The acting administrator from Ganta United Methodist Hospital, Patrick, came to close out the ceremony with some wise words.  He quoted Theodore Roosevelt, saying that compassionate care can be summed up as, "Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care."  He also reiterated the hospital's commitment to continuing this program, something we are very excited about seeing though.  Thanks to everyone who worked hard to make the past few weeks a reality and all the support of our family and friends back home. See you all soon!

Week 2- Part 2

Today we finished up the training of trainers portion for our second group of participants!  Tomorrow we will be meeting with a second group of TTMs to complete the programming.  Again, the pre and post test materials showed a successful week in terms of content, and the evaluations were very positive.  After heading back to Monrovia, we will take all of the feedback and print trainee manuals to be used in July.  We have received the go ahead for the next training to take place under the direction of Anni and Liz, the Curamericas interns.  After that, the program will be completely under the direction of the hospital administration.  This experience has allowed us a chance to learn while working in an area that we both feel very passionately about, and for that and so many other aspects, we are grateful.

Week 2

The second week of the training of trainers portion of our programming is underway!  We have a new group of health professionals and together we are putting the finishing touches on the materials that will be left for more training. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and pre and post test evaluations show that the material was well understood.

As one participant, a certified midwife, told us last Friday: "I feel this has woken something inside me, I want to practice what I have learned to help all laboring women."

We couldn't be happier with the results.  We will be leaving to Monrovia this weekend, and there we will be printing revised trainee manuals for future use in Ganta.  We are looking at organizing a training during July that the wonderful Curamerica's interns, Anni and Liz, would be able to evaluate.  This has been an exciting and informative experience and we can't wait to see what this week has to offer!

Community Dialogue

Our Friday session included a visit from Trained Traditional Midwives from twenty of the communities surrounding Ganta United Methodist Hospital.  The goals of this meeting, developed by our participants, were to inform the TTMs and thereby their communities about the compassionate labor program, build relationships, and to define the role the TTM would play in the health center setting.  The session was guided by a series of questions developed over the week that addressed stereotypes and reinforced that the health workers and the TTMs both had the welfare of their patients in mind and good intentions.  The discourse was friendly and polite, and the TTMs expressed that many felt honored to be included in this important discussion and to have their voices heard.  The health workers expressed that small misunderstandings often contributed to the conflicts between these two groups, and were hoping their "mothers" would be understanding that an effort to improve the environment for everyone was underway.  The health workers also showed off some of the comfort techniques that we practiced this week, and several enthusiastic TTMs jumped up to try them out, and even taught us a few techniques of their own.  There was a lot of laughing and even singing.  We wrapped up by discussing some administrative issues--that TTMs should remember their ID cards to be admitted to help their patient labor, and should also expect to step out of the room in an emergency situation.  Hopefully these experiences can be the framework for a productive partnership that can make the health center a safer place for all women- as the health workers and the TTMs work together to provide a safe, supportive environment for new life to enter the world.