World Vision's Prenatal Care Project

Natasha Kurashova, Prenatal Project Coordinator
E-mail: [email protected]

URL: http://www.friends-partners.org/friends/wvision/index.html

Greetings:

The health and well-being of mothers, children and families have become worse over the past few years in Gomel, Belarus (NIS) because of the consequences of Chernobyl and the country's social and economic crisis. The health care service is living through its difficult times while experiencing lack of medical supplies and modern equipment. The quality of health care becomes lower with unmotivated medical personnel, who have little opportunity to receive up-to-date training.

In 1994 World Vision Russia, Belarus, Ukraine initiated prenatal project in order to address couples reproductive health issues. The classes on preparation for childbirth, baby care and parenting have become very popular among Gomel families and medical professionals alike, and now need to be expanded. The key to the project sustainable development is to enable local population with knowledge and skills in family health issues. This can be approached through the train-of-trainers strategy which we plan to emphasis our work on in 1996 through the two main trends:

• training of the health professionals (gynecologists, obstetricians, pediatricians, nurses and midwives) in advanced theory and practice in psycho-social aspects of maternal/child care and family health issues.

• training of lay persons (young couples) in counseling in physical and psychological preparation for pregnancy, childbirth and baby care.

We would be grateful for any information in regards with the similar experiences which might be helpful for us to succeed in training programs such as: prenatal classes and those focusing on family reproductive health issues; training updates for the health professionals; training of lay-persons as counsellors, and community workers in particular.

  o   o              World Vision Belarus, Gomel
/ )\o/ \         "New Beginning"  Prenatal Project
 \/ "/\      http://solar.rtd.utk.edu/friends/wvision/index.html

A print version of much of the information contained in this NIS Third Sector Organizations section can be found in the of The Post-Soviet Handbook (Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1999). For more information on the handbook and instructions on how to order, see our Post Soviet Handbook Information page.

Last updated:    January 1997

A print version of much of the information contained in this NIS Third Sector Organizations section can be found in the The Post-Soviet Handbook (Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1999).

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