Mother and Child
150,000 Pregnancies and counting
Pregnancy care
We prepare pregnant women for their upcoming birth. Our pregnancy care / maternity care / antenatal care includes physical examination, pregnancy monitoring, ultrasound, and blood and urine tests.
Assist with Birthing
Perform safe, hygienic deliveries if necessary.
Encourage pregnant women to deliver with trained midwives.
Accompany ‘at-risk’ women to the referral hospital.
Offer two “waiting houses” in cities until birth
Post-natal care and health education.
Postpartum care involves getting proper rest and nutrition. We monitor for complications and offer counseling on feeding and caring for the baby.
Assisted with 150,000 Pregnancies
Since 1991 YWAM has trained over 500 Traditional Birth Attendants (who we now refer to as Mother Child Health Agents – MCHAs.) We support a team of 170 MCHA’s who oversee a population of nearly 150,000.
Our teams have trained them in the following skills and our trainees have delivered around 85% of the babies in Stung Treng Province.
Saving Lives
In the past, rusty razors were used to cut umbilical cords because birth attendants only knew what their mothers had taught them. This and other unhygienic practices led to a very high maternal and infant mortality rate.
Mothers and babies are now surviving childbirth in record numbers in our province far above the national rate. Despite the isolation and poverty of our province we have reached the governments Millennium Development Goals for maternal and neonatal death rates.
Considered the Gold Standard Model
Our Mother Child Health program has therefore been presented as a model to other provinces the “Ministry of Health” by the “The Bridge of Friendship” program brings in advice and partial funding to supervise the Mother Child Health Agents.
YWAM gives incentives to Mother Child Health Agents to accompany women to deliver in health clinics, and supports ‘waiting houses’ for pregnant women coming from remote villages to come and stay when their delivery is imminent.
We currently have two “waiting houses,”
one at Siempang and one at Jomgar Ler.
Crisis pregnancy counseling center
YWAM staff counsels mothers who find themselves with an unwanted pregnancy and who feel they have no option but to abort. We support these mothers in whatever decision they make and refer to other NGO’s as necessary. Many women gratefully find alternative paths to abortion. This counseling has helped to reduce both maternal mortality as well as the high rate of abortions.