Maternal Health

Head over to our project signup form to get involved in TIME’s efforts towards improving Maternal Health!

BACKGROUND

In 2000, world leaders came together to adopt the United Nations Millennium Declaration, which committed their nations to a new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty and set a series of targets to be achieved by 2015: The Millennium Development Goals. The fifth of the UNMDGs is to improve maternal health.
Of all the UNMDGs, the Maternal Health goal has made the least progress. Maternal deaths decreased less than 7% between 1990 and 2005, well below the 5.5% annual reduction required to achieve the global target.
Over 500 000 women die every year during pregnancy or childbirth, with over 90% of these deaths in developing countries. Every minute, a woman dies of complications relating to pregnancy and childbirth; it is the most frequent cause of death for women in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, and the vast majority of these deaths can be prevented.
Over 80% of maternal deaths worldwide are due to five direct causes: haemorrhage, sepsis, unsafe abortion, obstructed labour and hypertensive disease of pregnancy.
Attendance at births by skilled personnel is most effective way of preventing maternal death; attendance at births has remained unchanged in sub-Saharan Africa over the past 15 years, whereas in East Asia there has been a considerable increase in the proportion of births attended by skilled health care personnel and a related significant decline in maternal deaths.

THE TIME/SWIM MATERNAL HEALTH PROJECT

The TIME/SWIM Maternal Health Project began in 2010 when TIME and SWIM (Supporting Women in Medicine) identified maternal health as an area of interest for both groups, and as a need not currently being addressed at UQ.

The long term objectives of the project are:

To raise funds for sustainable maternal health projects in developing countries
To raise awareness about maternal health issues among the UQ community
To build relationships with communities in developing countries through involvement in maternal health programs overseas.

ACTIVITIES IN 2010

Fundraising for Bidan Delima

Bidan Delima is a program implemented by the Indonesian Midwives Association (IBI) that aims to improve the quality of service delivery and family planning in the private sector.
The program addresses maternal mortality in Indonesia through the certification of high quality midwives. The private sector has been targeted due to the increasing number of deliveries in private facilities.
Bidan Delima receives assistance from USAID, including the development of kits, systems and guidelines, and capacity building for IBI management in workshop facilitation and facilitator training.

Some potential fundraising activities include a Movie Night and a Fundraising Dinner at an Indonesian Restaurant – more details to come!

Maternal Health Seminar (29 July 2010)

Zonta Birthing Kit Workshop (28 August 2010)

Zonta is an organisation of 33,000 executives in business and the professions around the world providing service and advocacy through projects to improve the health, education, economic and political status of women and girls.

Through the Birthing Kit Foundation (Australia), the Zonta Club of Brisbane Breakfast runs a Birthing Kit Workshop each year. The workshops aim to reduce maternal and infant morbidity and mortality through providing a clean birthing environment via a simple kit: 1 square metre plastic sheet for the mother to lie on; a piece of soap; 2 gloves; 3 gauze squares; 3 cord ties/2 umbilical clamps; and a sterile scalpel blade.

In 2009 the target of 4000 kits was met, and sent to Afghanistan. TIME has participated in this event since 2008 and had an impressive turnout of about 50 students last year.

Here is some footage from the 2009 packing day: