By Jenny Fox | Project Assistant
Throughout history and persisting in our current age, the leading cause of maternal death is postpartum hemorrhage. Innovations that directly address this complication are vital for saving lives. The non-pneumatic anti-shock garment is a low-tech, inexpensive intervention that is recommended by the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and other global health entities. It is a compression suit made of neoprene that is applied to the legs in order to shunt blood from the lower extremities back to the vital organs. We have been using these in our birth centers for the past decade, with excellent results, saving lives and also improving recovery from blood loss.
Global health experts have developed a 2-day course that trains any provider attending births how to follow a series of protocols, including the NASG, when indicated, to effectively reduce maternal deaths from bleeding after birth. Our Mercy in Action midwives have become Master Trainers in the Helping Mothers Survive: Bleeding After Birth Complete 2.0 as we utilize these steps in our birth centers. We also offer this workshop to other providers in our communities, and donate an NASG to each health facility that attends the workshop. At a recent workshop, the providers marveled over how applicable the training will be to their work, and lamented in reflecting upon a recent mother who had died from blood loss. Could she have been saved if an NASG was available?
When I was in the Philippines earlier this year, I brought a few of these in my checked luggage, as they are difficult to obtain in the Philippines so we are importing them to donate to facilities who have done the training. We visited a midwifery college that had done the training. The head of the college was delighted to receive the NASG so that a whole cadre of new midwives could learn how to use it!
Implementing these protocols in our own birth centers, and in our communities, is one way that Mercy in Action birth centers are saving lives! Your generosity makes this possible, so that we have the funding to conduct these workshops and also to purchase many NASGs and donate to workshop participants. Thank you for caring about the vulnerable and investing in the future of healthy mothers.
Kindly,
Jenny Fox, for the Mercy in Action Team
Links:
By Jenny Fox | Project Assistant
By Vicki Allen Penwell | Executive Director
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