Monday, May 18th, 2009

Mongolia: Better Care for Mothers and Babies

In developing countries like Mongolia, a lot of lives of mothers and babies are lost in pregnancy and childbirth. Many are due to preventable causes, and health care specialists are in urgent demand. TDLC and Kitasato University offer training through distance learning, to make a difference

A newborn baby at a hospital in Ulaanbaator, Mongolia. Doesn’t this infant deserve the best health care, taken for granted in most industrialized nations?

93 out of every thousand, 20.7 out of a thousand—these are the maternal and infant mortality rates in Mongolia in 2005. Health care specialists are urgently needed. Poor infrastructure, and lack of English capability and computer skills inhibit access to information.

TDLC and Kitasato University’s School of Nursing, in cooperation with the Mongolia Nurses Association, have developed a blended learning program called Happy Mothers, Happy Children, to train mother and child health care specialists in Mongolia through distance learning.

Mother and child health care practitioners eagerly responded, gathering at four different sites in Mongolia for the course held on March 5 and 6, 2009.

This year’s program is a sequel to the first session initiated in April 2008. Over 400 participants have taken the eight-lesson, two-day course each year, and have been encouraged to each pass on their newly acquired knowledge and experience to at least 10 practitioners. The objective is to build the number of caregivers trained in midwifery, maternal and newborn health, to share knowledge and skills needed to reduce maternal and infant deaths resulting from preventable causes. And up-to-date information and knowledge are being brought directly to local practitioners, via video conference from Tokyo.

See our picture gallery below. Some of the shots were taken by program participants!

Newborn twins sleep at a hospital in Ulaanbaatar. Picture taken in 2008.

A mother cradles her baby at the Maternal and Child Health Research Center in Ulaanbaatar March 28, 2008.

Blended learning program participants raise their arms as they follow the lead from TDLC via video conference in an exercise to cut down stress, part of a lecture on psychological assessment and care during pregnancy and childbirth, in Ulaanbaatar March 6, 2009.

Core members of Mongolia’s nurses association meet at a study session to assess needs and focus ahead of the first Distance Learning course, in Ulaanbaatar March 26, 2008.

Mongolian nurses concentrate during a study session to assess needs and focus ahead of the first Distance Learning course, in Ulaanbaatar March 26, 2008.

A newborn baby is held by its mother at a hospital in Ulaanbaatar.  Picture taken in 2008.

A newborn baby is seen in an incubator at a hospital in Ulaanbaatar.  Picture taken in 2008.

A baby rests in an incubator at a hospital in Ulaanbaatar. Picture taken in 2008.

A baby is on tube feeding at a hospital in Ulaanbaatar. Picture taken in 2008.

A newborn is bundled up as a nurse tends to business at a hospital in Ulaanbaatar. Picture taken in 2008.

A Mongolian woman poses for pictures during a walk with her baby in a residential area in Ulaanbaatar in March 2008.

A baby glances up at the touch of a nurse’s hand in Ulaanbaatar. Picture taken in 2008.

For further information on this program, please see the program pages for the first and second sessions.  We have also produced a story on the development of the program.