Maternal Newborn Health Unit at LSTM

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South Africa

The Maternal and Newborn Health Unit is working with the MRC Unit for Maternal and Infant health Care Strategies at the University of Pretoria to deliver a DFID funded programme, ‘Reducing maternal and neonatal death in rural South Africa’.

The proposed programme includes demonstration and evaluation of training packages in Essential Steps in Managing Obstetric Emergencies (ESMOE) and Emergency Obstetric Simulation Training (EOST) in conjunction with a programme to strengthen the capacity for supportive supervision.  Provision of Skilled Birth Attendance (SBA) and  Emergency Obstetric Care (EOC) coupled with Newborn Care (NC) are key strategies that if implemented will reduce maternal and neonatal mortality and morbidity.  The programme will be delivered to skilled birth attendants who are defined as health providers who have at least the minimum knowledge and skills to manage normal childbirth and provide basic (first line) emergency obstetric care.

The Essential Steps in Managing Obstetric Emergencies (ESMOE) and Emergency Obstetric Simulation Training (EOST) training packages were developed in RSA from the Life Saving Skills – Essential Obstetric  and Newborn Care (LSS-EOC) training programme developed by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2006.  In November 2007 this training package was adopted by the South African Department of Health and adapted to become the ESMOE and EOST training programmes which have also been very successfully piloted in South Africa (SA) and are now ready for further evaluation and scale up.

The first training is scheduled to take place in a pilot district in October 2012.

The programme is co-ordinated in SA by the MRC Unit for Maternal and Infant health Care Strategies at the University of Pretoria (MRC) with oversight by the ESMOE Advisory Board; and LSTM provide support to and co-ordination of the programme through provision of technical  assistance by external facilitators from the UK and global knowledge exchange with cross country learning and using common training and evaluation methodology. All partners will work in close collaboration with the Department of Health and other agencies (e.g. WHO, UNFPA, UNICEF and others) as well as the relevant Professional Associations in SA. The partners will maintain close contact with and consult with the DFID South Africa’s country health adviser and DFID supported technical assistance where provided.