Background
Poor access to quality maternal health care is a major problem in many developing counties, especially in rural areas. The lack of health services often leads to increased maternal and newborn deaths. In Malawi, maternal mortality remains a big challenge and Chilipa zone, in Mangochi district, is one of the high-affected areas. Most women in this district give birth in rural areas with a traditional birth attendant and don’t have access to maternal health services at health facilities.

About the project
This change project was created to improve referrals of all pregnant women with risk factors, from three selected villages to Mangochi District Referral Hospital (MDH) and Christian Health Association of Malawi (CHAM). The project team worked with four traditional birth attendants in the local communities, to improve their skills on how to recognize pregnant women’s early complications and strengthen the referral system between them and the health facilities.

Results
By the end of this project, the referrals of pregnant women with health complications from the villages to the health facilities had increased. Very few women were referred before the project, but 69 women were referred during the project implementation from March to September. The project was also scaled up to neighbouring areas, where an increased number of women now have gained access to health facility services during and after their pregnancy. The project has been presented at local and international conferences and has been declared a model site for community empowerment in improving maternal health in Malawi.

Year: 2006