 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Umaiyeh Khammash, MD, MARAM, PO Box 1134, Ramallah, Palestine, Doris Youngs, MPH, Intrah, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB 8100, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-8100, 919-843-4782, dnelson@intrah.org, and Hammouda Bellamine, MPH, Intrah/MARAM, PO Box 1134, Ramallah, Palestine.
Designed to implement community-based maternal and child health initiatives, the USAID-funded MARAM program is the largest health development project in the Palestinian territories. Because of severe health care challenges posed by the Israeli occupation and Palestinian intifada, the focus of the project shifted in April 2002 to providing emergency medical relief to civilians whose access to services is often restricted by barriers to travel and infrastructure breakdowns affecting hospitals and other facilities. Given these conditions, the percentage of home births in the Palestinian territories has risen from 5% to 35%. Instead of making the planned improvements to safe delivery services, doctors working with MARAM found themselves advising in deliveries over the phone, coaching husbands and family members through the birthing process. In response, MARAM partner Intrah has introduced the concept of maternity homes as part of a safe delivery network that includes primary health centers for prenatal and postnatal care and hospitals for back-up. The maternity homes are intended to increase the accessibility of safe delivery for normal births by establishing options closer to women’s homes than hospitals. To support the maternity homes, MARAM is fostering community support groups to encourage prenatal and postnatal care and working with the Ministry of Health to develop a package to license the homes. Drawing on experiences from a test of five pilot maternity homes, this presentation will offer insight into challenges faced by policy makers and health planners as they carry out rapid changes in priorities and strategies during political instability.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Maternal and Child Health, Access to Care
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
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.