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Visit Report by Melrose East
Midwifery Skills Workshop
Visits to health centres
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Ethiopia calls again! A message on the wall in Alaba health centre reads,

Mothers bringing new life into the world should not die in the process.

This sums up the purpose of the visit for me.

Mothers bringing new life into the world must nor die in the process.

The first week of the visit, for the midwives, concentrated on delivering a five day programme to forty eight nurse/midwives from twelve hospitals and twenty four health centres in southern Ethiopia. The midwives who delivered the programme with me were Carole Garrick, Jane Herve and Robyn Phillips. Lynn Jones, student midwife from the University of Glamorgan accompanied the team and her help was very much appreciated.

The aims of the midwifery programme were:-

  1. To update nurse/midwives in emergency obstetric drills
  2. To update nurse/midwives in common obstetric problems
  3. To provide course participants with the knowledge and skills to teach others
  4. To provide a support mechanism for nurse/midwives working alone in isolated areas of southern Ethiopia

It was originally planned that the programme be delivered in Hwassa Hospital for the first three days followed by two days in Yirgacheffe health centre and repeated in Alaba health centre. However, after concerns expressed by some of the course participants, it was unanimously decided to remain in Hwassa hospital for the whole programme. As a result, the length of the programme was reduced to four days.


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Maternal Mortality

Ethiopia has one of the highest maternal as well as infant mortality rates in the world.

Total expenditure per capita on health (Intl $, 2004):

Ethiopia : $21 >>

UK : $2560 >>

Life Expectancy at Birth

Men on average live for only 50 yrs and women for 53 yrs. In UK men and women live for 77yrs and 81yrs respectively.