Background
Unsafe abortions are a major cause of maternal death across the world, including Sri Lanka. Because abortion is highly restricted, women resort to illegal abortions which are often performed by unskilled personnel and/or in an environment lacking the minimal medical standards. Many women who undergo unsafe abortions suffer from health complications like inflammations, chronic pain, internal bleedings and abdominal injuries. Due to the illegality, Sri Lanka does not have any established post-abortion care services to reduce women’s suffering and many women are reluctant to seek help for fear of being judged and reported to the police.

About the project
This project was created to establish high quality post abortion care services at three Sri Lankan hospitals – in Colombo South, Galle and Moneragala. In order to achieve this, the project team trained a group of health workers, doctors, midwives and nurses who were going to be involved in the implementation of the project. With the help of counsellors and psychiatrists, the participants learned to counsel post-abortion clients at the hospitals. After the training was completed, a referral system was established and all essential equipment and supplies were purchased. Regular meetings were held with the hospital staff to give them a sense of ownership and ensure the health workers had a positive attitude towards the project.

Results
By the end of the project, all staff categories had been trained on how to provide post-abortion care to their clients and the number of maternal deaths caused by septic abortion was reduced at the targeted hospitals. At the beginning of the project, many clients were afraid to talk about their problems for fear of being criticized or reported, but this improved with time as they learned about the services available and noticed that the staff members treated them in a non-judgmental way.

Year: 2007