West Wales health workers help Ugandan mums and babies

A midwife from Glangwili Hospital, Carmarthen, is part of a team of GPs, midwives and hospital doctors who have been visiting Africa to help mothers and babies. 

Jo Henderson formed part of the group, who all volunteer through Welsh charity Care for Uganda, which has been visiting the Lowero district of the country to help local health workers in combating the needless deaths of mothers and babies.
Uganda currently has a high rate of mothers dying during childbirth and one of the highest mortality rates among babies and young children in the world and in Lowero district less than 40% of women receive care from a skilled birth attendant during labour and childbirth. Much of this suffering could be prevented by improving local people’s access to basic healthcare.
The Wales-based medical team, FLOW (Friends of Lowero) joined Ugandan health workers to deliver training to community volunteers and traditional birth attendants. The training emphasised the importance of preventative measures and the recognition of danger signs, particularly among pregnant women and young babies.
Jo said: “I was lucky to have the chance to visit Uganda for the first time in 2012 together with three local GPs to see the work that PONT, another Welsh charity, had been undertaking in Mbale in the eastern part of the country. There I met other midwives from the Royal Glamorgan Hospital and I was impressed by their enthusiasm and warmth.
“They had been helping to train traditional birth attendants and community health workers for many years and they also held sessions to update local midwives. During that visit, the four of us from Carmarthen together with the CEO of Care for Uganda started to implement a programme to train village health teams (similar to the one operating successfully in Mbale) in the very poor rural area of Lowero in central Uganda.
“Since then we have visited Lowero annually to oversee this programme and join the enthusiastic local health trainers in presenting sessions on basic hygiene, disease prevention, first aid and early recognition of life threatening medical conditions.
“It’s heartbreaking and challenging to realise that in such a beautiful, verdant country the most vulnerable are dying needlessly. With the knowledge and resources to prevent diseases, particularly malaria and access to clean water, antenatal care, immunisation, and the means to rapidly transfer of the sick to hospital, many of these deaths are preventable.
“With the support of volunteers from Care for Uganda, combined with the enthusiasm and commitment of the local health authority and its workers we are gradually providing these basics of good health.
“The medical team have now also been invited to work in the local hospital and health centres to train and update doctors and midwives in maternal and neonatal resuscitation, obstetric ultrasound, instrumental birth and improved anaesthetic techniques. It’s an exciting opportunity to forge a partnership between the enthusiastic Ugandan health professionals and our own medics.”
A major factor in the high death rates is the delay in getting the seriously ill to skilled medical help. In rural Uganda, where roads often resemble river beds and the only transport is a push bike or a wheelbarrow, the deployment of motorbike ambulances has provided a lifeline. Care for Uganda has been able to deliver three motorbike ambulances to one sub county in Lowero and pay for these drivers to be trained in first aid.
Motorbike ambulances have been crucial in other parts of Uganda in preventing deaths. The team is currently working hard to raise money to buy three more ambulances, at a total cost of almost £14,000.
If you would like to know more about the work of Care for Uganda visit the website; www.careforuganda.org.
If you would like to know more about the healthcare work being undertaken and how you may be able to help contact Jo on jo_c_henderson@yahoo.co.uk

Photo top - Jo with Josephine Kyaterekera (local midwife and trainer) and Anwen Rees OGP