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Birth Attendant Training Safeguarding Families

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Childbirth is a challenging experience for a woman and her child. It is far more challenging – and potentially deadly – in the remote highlands of northern Vietnam, near the Chinese border. There, farm families are so isolated in their bamboo or brick homes on steep alpine slopes that they must walk for hours to reach the nearest medical clinic.

How can a woman experiencing labour pains make such an arduous trek along narrow mountain trails? Very few can. Most deliver their babies at home, in very primitive conditions – including no running water or electricity.

These conditions, plus the absence of trained personnel and appropriate medical equipment, dramatically escalate the risk of death or other tragedies during childbirth.

Samaritan’s Purse and other organizations are responding by building medical clinics. But many expectant mothers in late-stage pregnancy are still unable or willing to walk the long distances to reach the clinics. And so Samaritan’s Purse is also teaching and equipping designated women in mountain communities to effectively assist women in their areas during childbirth.

Samaritan’s Purse Canada’s “Traditional Birth Attendant Training Program” will host several six-day training sessions during the next year for women in the often-neglected Lai Chau and Lao Cai provinces of northern Vietnam.

Dozens of women have graduated from the training program since the first session in 2001. Seven graduates held an informal reunion recently to talk about the program and its value for their remote mountain people.

“I finished the training only one month ago,” said Lo Thi Chan Lao, 35. “Since then, I have delivered three babies. I never could have done it before. The training has made me confident to do this work and help my people.”

Another graduate had helped to deliver seven babies before taking the Samaritan’s Purse training three months earlier. Since then, she has delivered 13 more babies – all of them healthy.

“The training taught me how to be even more helpful to the mothers during childbirth, and how to protect them,” said Hang Thi Phen, 40. “The training also taught me to look for problems (during earlier stages of the pregnancy) so I know when to plan for a mother to go to the clinic or the hospital before her labour begins.”

The training also provides potentially life-saving advice for women during the early stages of their pregnancies.

Hang Thi Phen recalled telling one expectant woman – who had previously suffered a miscarriage – to reduce her workload during her second pregnancy. The woman was unwilling – knowing how much strain it would put on her already over-worked husband, as he struggled to grow rice and tea on their small farm’s steep mountain slopes. But she agreed, and delivered a healthy baby boy a few months later.

Caring Culturally

Vuong Van Thang, chairman of the local government committee in Tham Duong where some of the birth attendant training sessions are held, said rural women have often been reluctant to visit health clinics during their pregnancies, even when the clinics are within reasonable walking distances, because the facilities are usually staffed by men. The availability of a growing number of female birth attendants is encouraging expectant women to seek help during pregnancy, and significantly improving the likelihood of safe deliveries, Thang says.

“They (the birth attendants) are able to initiate meaningful communication with the women during their pregnancies and learn about any problems. That helps everyone.”

Other graduates of the birth attendant training program said it helped them teach new mothers how to more effectively and confidently care for their newborn infants.

“This training is very important because they (the graduates) learn how to care for the women before, during and after childbirth,” he added. “This is a great benefit, and we are very pleased with the help we are receiving from Samaritan’s Purse – Canada.”

Ways You Can Help
Pray Please pray that God will continue to provide direction to Samaritan’s Purse, as we respond to people’s needs, share the love of Christ, and serve the church worldwide.		Give This training program in Vietnam is one of many projects providing prenatal and maternity care to needy women worldwide. Donate Here.