Guyanese Doctor attends training on improving maternal health in Japan

As part of the continuous efforts to improve maternal health in Guyana, the Public Health Ministry’s focal person for Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV, Dr Oneka Scott is attending a one-month

Maternal Health Training Programme in Japan.

The training, which commenced on Thursday and will run until July 10, is being conducted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The main objective of the programme is to improve maternal health and reduce maternal mortality.

Dr Scott has been a physician for some seven years and joined the Public Health Ministry as the focal person for adolescent health and Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV, in September last year.

The Ministry, and by extension the Government of Guyana, has a mandate to reduce maternal and neo-natal mortality, thus improving family health as a whole. It is for this reason that it is working closely with JICA to train personnel in the area of maternal health.

The one-month training programme in Japan is offered to countries aiming to strengthen their strategies to reinforce “continuum of care” at the community level so as to contribute to the improvement of maternal health.

Participants will have the opportunity to learn about the policies and administration of health in Japan, the nursing education system and the roles of various health stakeholders, including maternity centres, health centres, hospitals, and universities.

Through the lectures and field visits, participants will gain ideas and garner solutions for solving community health issues in their countries, and make an educational plan for nurses, midwives and health workers.

Insight will also be gained into addressing bottlenecks of health systems for maternal and child survival by delivering a more effective package of preventive and clinical interventions for maternal and child health at both community and facility levels.

Creating linkages between communities and facilities through the introduction of innovative strategies and scaling-up high-impact child health interventions will also be explored during the training.

Rapid progress in some countries demonstrates that when Governments take strategic approaches to safe motherhood, changes can be made to maternal health nationwide.

These approaches can ensure the “continuum of care” during the period from pre-pregnancy to postpartum by deploying skilled birth attendants, ensuring adequate essential supplies, making family-planning accessible and providing timely obstetric care.

Increasing health-seeking attitudes among the people towards reproductive health and safe motherhood can also play a major role in improving maternal health.