Maternity Care

Maternal Outreach Project (MOP)

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The Maternal Outreach Project (MOP) aims at providing maternal health care to pregnant women who live in in rural areas in Sierra Leone. The program is focused on conducting ultrasound scanning examinations and diagnosing high-risk-pregnant women. These women should not deliver at home but be referred to the nearest hospital. In case of emergency, the woman is referred to the national ambulance service (NEMS) of Sierra Leone.

 

A pilot project in 2020 revealed that most maternal complications and deaths occurred to pregnant women attempting delivery at home. A complex of social economic factors (personal barriers, poor infrastructure, unawareness of risks at birth giving) contributes to the decision of not going to a health facility for birth giving.

 

​Health Talks

During the scanning sessions we give health talks to the group of waiting women about birth control and contraceptives. ​The purpose is to give women more control of the number of children and the intervals between the births. The actual distribution of contraceptives is taken care of by Masanga hospital.

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Sponsored students involved

WNF started this project to offer maternal health services and family planning consultation to the communities in small villages in hard-to-reach, rural areas in Sierra Leone. At the same time, it created an opportunity for the students, who WNSF sponsors, to operate as certified scanners in the maternal outreach interventions. They  gain a wealth of work experience in rendering obstetrics services in the field.

 

​Research

In order to evaluate the outreach interventions, a quality research project has been started. The research aims to assess broadly the influence of the program on pregnant women in rural villages.

 

The research team evaluates the interventions for better understanding of:

• The effect of the interventions on facility birth

• How and why women make decisions around child birth

  • zooms in on the separate unique group of adolescent preganacies

• The cost effectiveness of the operations.

 

This will hopefully ensure that future interventions are meaningful and affordable. A reduction of the Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) is hardly measurable. The MOP program can only identify the pregnant women that carry a high risk and encourage them to go to the nearest hospital for facility birth. If properly managed, the program has everything in it to save lives and limit maternal risks.​​​​

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