In collaboration with the Ministries of Health in Kenya and Uganda, PRIME has tested approaches for expanding the scope of practice of nurse-midwives to include postabortion care (PAC) services in order to reach the majority of women seeking postabortion services.
Through training, supportive supervision, and advocacy for policy support and facility improvement, the capacity of 24 midwives from 13 public sector facilities in Uganda, and 57 private nurse-midwife practitioners from 32 facilities in Kenya was developed for PAC.
The results reaffirmed the Ghana experience that nurse-midwives can provide PAC services safely and effectively and that women are seeking these services. 436 MVA procedures were performed at 28 of the 32 pilot facilities in Kenya within 19 weeks following training. By the end of 24 weeks, trained nurse-midwives at 12 of the 13 pilot facilities in Uganda performed a total of 329 MVA procedures without complications. Over 80 percent of postabortion patients seeking services from the pilot facilities were counseled by trained nurse-midwives for family planning and all those not wishing to become pregnant immediately accepted a family planning method. In Uganda, 64 percent of the postabortion patients received STI/counseling and 33% received appropriate nutrition counseling.
The results are guiding the scaling up of PAC services to primary level facilities, taking into account supervision factors relevant to the private and public sectors, maintenance of standards, and policy changes in the practice of nursing and midwifery.
Learning Objectives: By the end of the session, participants will recognize that nurse-midwives can provide postabortion care services safely and effectively
Keywords: Post-Abortion Care, Midwifery
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.