Maternal and infant care gets a boost

CLOSE TO 100 health professionals who received specialised training in maternal and infant care and management are to be recognised for their achievements under the training component of the Programme for the Reduction of Maternal and Child Mortality (PROMAC).

The 96 participants have successfully completed the PROMAC-sponsored training, which should better enable them to deal with the challenges associated with neonatal care, and improve the overall effort to reduce child mortality. Their areas of training included maternal foetal medicine, neonatology and critical care; neonatal nutrition, post-basic critical care and midwifery. With these additional skills, the health-care professionals have now boosted the capacity of the health sector to handle the challenges associated with neonatal treatment and care.

EXPERTISE

Health-care workers were trained across both primary and secondary care within the public sector and their accomplishment also comes at a time when renewed focus has been placed on the care and treatment of babies in Jamaican health facilities, as well as on the equipment and expertise required to handle these challenges.

Their training forms just one component of the overall initiatives of PROMAC, and was financed by a portion of the funds that have been allocated under the $2.8 billion (€22 million) programme funded by the European Union, aimed at reducing the incidence of neonatal and maternal deaths. Other aspects of the programme include the design of maternal and neonatal high-dependency units at health facilities, the procurement of ambulances and equipment, and the design and rehabilitation of primary-care centres islandwide.

PROMAC has been operational in Jamaica since 2013, in an effort to support Jamaica’s achievement of Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5, reducing child mortality and improving maternal health, respectively. Under the programme, specific objectives include reducing the incidence of neonatal and maternal deaths, improving the quality of management of high-risk pregnancies at both tertiary and primary-care levels, and enhancing public awareness and understanding of health-care processes and patients’ rights.