Mauritania

Mauritania is vast, rural West African nation with few medical providers.  Only half of all births are attended by a nurse, midwife or doctor, and preventable complications, such as eclampsia and torn placentas, contribute to the country’s high maternal and infant mortality rates.  Through the Action for West Africa Region—Reproductive Health (AWARE-RH) Project, EngenderHealth works to improve reproductive health, family planning, and child survival in Mauritania by focusing on three key areas:

• Advocating for health care policies that support maternal and neonatal health programs, and
• Mobilizing communities to support maternal and infant health
• Improving prenatal and obstetric practices

 
Advocating for Health Care Policies
In Mauritania, EngenderHealth advocates for appropriate policies and increased funding to improve maternal and neonatal health programs. We have:

• Worked with Mauritania’s Ministry of Health to develop a national maternal and newborn health advocacy plan;
• Strengthened the infrastructure and added equipment at area health clinics in the Kaedi district and Golgol region to support maternal health care.

 
Community Mobilization
EngenderHealth and its partners work with local village associations to expand the role of communities in the health of mothers and their babies. Community outreach is designed to educate women, men, and village elders to:

• The signs of both healthy and unhealthy pregnancies;
• Benefits of prenatal care;
• The importance of having emergency transportation to a health center available for pregnant women.  In Mauritania, where rural populations often live far from health centers, such advance planning is especially critical.

In addition, EngenderHealth’s initiatives have led several villages in Kaedi to create a health savings system called Forfait Obstetrical, in which members save for the anticipated costs of obstetric care.

 
Improving prenatal and obstetric practices
EngenderHealth is addressing practices as well as policies by:

• Developing a curriculum outlining the “best practices” of obstetric care;
• Training trainers to share best practices nationwide.
  • The initial three trainees eventually instructed 20 government reproductive health care providers at the Aleg district hospital.
• Increasing awareness about prevention and treatment of malaria in pregnancy;
• Supporting the Ministry of Health’s adoption of a new treatment protocol (sulfadoxine pyrimethamine) to prevent malaria in pregnant women.