OSAAB and the Maternity Hospital entered into an agreement in February 2006 with the Women and Infants Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island, USA (WIHRI), to provide on-going support in the creation of a Maternal & Newborn Health Education Department within the maternity hospital. It is envisioned that through the provision of maternal and newborn health education programs, the risk of infants being abandoned at birth, or institutionalized due to a disability, will be decreased.
WIHRI has a previously established relationship with the hospital and worked in a partnership from 1998-2003 to create the Women Wellness Center (WWC) located within the hospital complex. The WWC continues to operate today and is sustained and managed by the hospital.
Under the partnership, WIHRI has sent health education trainers to Albania to conduct Training-of-Trainers (TOT) programs to twenty five medical staff and social workers within the hospital. Annually, over 6000 new and expectant mothers who come to the hospital for pre-natal care and to delivery their babies, now have access to free trainig classes and information in the following areas:
Pre-Delivery: Pre-natal and childbirth education programs to pregnant women and their spouses.
Delivery: Program developed to assist the hospital staff and patients in understanding the role of the “significant other’ participating in the birth process in the delivery room.
Post-Delivery: Established a patient education program module for nurses to implement during the post-partum stay. This program educates new mothers in the proper care of infants to include breast-feeding, bathing, changing, etc.
Additionally, through the support of Raiffeisen Bank in Albania, funding was provided to print 8000 booklets per year entitled "Caring For You And Your Baby." Each new mother receives a course and copy of the booklet to take home with her after birth.
Starting in 2008 and continuing today, the partnership created a training-of-trainers program in nursing education. Through the creation of this program, nurses in the maternity hospital receive on-going training courses in updated nursing techniques. Over 200 nurses per year receive training that will result in an increase in the quality of medical care provided to women and newborn infants in Albania.
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