March 08, 2016

Improving Maternal Care in Nepal

tags:	#delivery, #maternal mortality, #neonatal mortality, #Nepal, #NGO, #One Heart World-Wide, #pregnancy, #rural populations
located:	Nepal
by:	Deniz Zehra Tavli

One Heart World-Wide is a nonprofit organization with a mission to decrease maternal and neonatal mortality in remote, rural areas. The organisation developed over the last decade an effective, replicable and sustainable model to reduce preventable deaths related to pregnancy and delivery among vulnerable rural populations. So called Female Community Health Volunteers get trained in order to be the first point of contact for pregnant women in rural Nepal. The volunteers are taught the basics of safe motherhood, with special focus on how to recognize, stabilize and evacuate maternal and neonatal emergencies.

The NGO was founded in 1997 by Arlene Samen as One H-E.A.R.T. (Health Education and Research in Tibet), which focused on training community members, health care professionals, and new mothers in lifesaving skills and safe birthing practices in Tibetian rural areas. During One H.E.A.R.T’s ten years in Tibet a model of service delivery was developed and refined into the effective and sustainable “Network of Safety”, a culturally appropriate network of local partners around endangered mothers and infants. This network provides workshops and trainings to raise awareness, teaching good practices, and distributing essential supplies to ensure that mothers and infants survive delivery and the first months of life.

The model was taken to a global scale as One Heart World-Wide, providing on-the-ground training in maternal and neonatal health in Nepal and Mexico. Since One Heart World-Wide’s arrival, there have been drastic declines in maternal and neonatal mortality rates in those regions. Today the NGO is wholly focused on Nepal, a country that critically needs access to safe deliveries, concerning the fact that it boasts a population of 31 million with only one physician per 5,000 people.

Support One Heart World-Wide by donating or sharing their contents and help them to raise awareness for maternal and neonatal mortality and safe motherhood!