Making Motherhood Safe

The project aims to improve access to quality health services for poor pregnant women and their newborns in Dar es Salaam and surrounding areas. There is currently a critical shortage in such services leading to unnecessary maternal and newborn deaths. Project activities include: (1) enhancing the skills of health management teams and health care providers in 22 public health facilities to provide quality gender-sensitive maternal and newborn services in emergency situations; (2) improving the standard operating procedures in these facilities; and (3) recruiting staffing and training health care workers for a new specialized Maternity and Newborn Hospital in Dar es Salaam. The project benefits over 600 health care workers by improving their clinical skills their work environment and the support and supervision they receive from health management teams. It also benefits more than 500 000 pregnant women and their newborns by improving the quality of care they receive. This project is part of Canada’s maternal newborn and child health commitment.

The expected outcomes of this project include : (1) improved access to quality gender-sensitive maternal and newborn health services in Dar es Salaam and surrounding areas; (2) strengthened capacities of district and regional health management teams; (3) improved quality of care; (4) improved referral system; (5) better trained health care providers; and (6) improved procedures systems and support services at the Maternity and Newborn Hospital.