Perinatal education for 1400 mothers in Albania

Our midwife Esmeralda goes regularly to the wards of the Queen Geraldina maternity hospital to support mothers in starting to breastfeed. One of the patients she helped this week was a mother with her baby in the NICU.

"The most beautiful moment today was helping a mother whose second born had been in the intensive care unit for three days. I checked her breast and found that she had colostrum. The mother told me that for health reasons, she had not put the baby to the breast, neither had she pumped. 

Together we expressed the first drops of colostrum. I advised her to pump several times a day. I explained to her the importance of having colostrum for the baby and that it lasts a maximum of 7 days before her milk will come in.

She felt happy because even with her first child she had not been able to feed the baby with colostrum. She was ready to collect the colostrum and take it to her baby in Intensive Care."

Breast milk, and colostrum in particular, is life-saving to all babies, and especially to babies in a delicate medical situation. This is why we continue to promote it both to staff through trainings and advocacy work, as well as by the example of our midwife counseling each and every mother.

We plan in 2025 to organize the midwives in training to shadow Esmeralda and learn how to teach and counsel new mothers in their first steps of breastfeeding.

Thank you so much for continuing to give to the projects of the Foundation to help mothers, babies, and medical staff experience happier, healthier births.

Through the generous giving of the community here and abroad, our main accomplishments in 2024 have been: 

Equipment

• 11 BPO2 monitors for the NICU at SUOGJ MB Geraldina
• 3 large air conditioners for the birthing wing at SUOGJ MB Geraldina
• 10 computers for the administration at SUOGJ MB Geraldina
• A Medela hospital quality breast pump and parts, and a sterilizer and cart for SUOGJ Koco Gliozheni.    
• At both Koco Gliozheni and Mbreteresha Geraldina, we have continued to provide about 10 Boxes of Hope a month for the most vulnerable mothers who give birth. 

Education

• We completed a Training for Trainers for Baby Friendly Hospitals at SUOGJ MB Geraldina
• We presented 3 training sessions on managing stress and communication challenges for the NICU staff at SUOGj MB Geraldina. 
• At least 100 moms counseled in their first steps of breastfeeding at SUOGJ MB Geraldina

Advocacy

• This year we focused our effort in advocacy on support for breastfeeding, and especially lobbying for supports both in the hospital and in home 
• We put on a Gala fundraiser in June to highlight the need for support for the maternity hospitals, and in particular for Breastfeeding and for critical care for the NICUs in both hospitals.

Community Work through Social Businesses

• Through MamiCare, just this year we have supported close to 200 families with prenatal classes, home visits, and high quality breast pumps 
• Operating a small shop serving the needs of staff and patients at Mbreteresha Geraldina, open from early morning to late evening every day of the week

Links:

• Foundation Website
• Foundation Instagram

"The first month of life is the most vulnerable for child survival....

With the increase in facility births (almost 80% globally), there is a great opportunity for providing essential newborn care and identifying and managing high risk newborns. However, few women and newborns stay in the facility for the recommended 24 hours after birth, which is the most critical time when complications can present. In addition, too many newborns die at home because of early discharge from the hospital, barriers to access and delays in seeking care. The four recommended postnatal care contacts delivered at health facility or through home visits play a key role to reach these newborns and their families."  WHO Newborn Mortality Factsheet, 2024

Care for new mothers and babies in the first weeks of life in Tirana, Albania, is particularly scant. Mothers do not usually go in for a visit in the first week after birth, and even fewer receive home visits.  Families are not getting the support they need.  

Bridging the chasm between what is promised by the state health plan and what is delivered hasbeen of paritcular interest to us over the past months.  We have been speaking with maternity hospital staff, the Ministry of Health, and leaders of UNICEF and WHO on how we can address the massive gap that exists in care for new mothers once they leave the maternity hospital.

One modest answer has been our social enterprise, MamiCare Albania, that connects with pregnant and new mothers in the community, providing them high quality classes for both mothers and fathers, and home visits. Still, so much more needs to be done.

What more can we do?

• Advocate at every level unitl new mothers routinely get high quality visits after birth
• Educate pregnant mothers both in the maternity hospital and in the community
• Equip mothers mothers with the tools they need, including baby care basics for those who cannot afford them.

With your help, we can continue to provide:

• quality prenatal education to pregnant mothers in the hospital and in the community, In September we will restart classes in the maternity hospital and expand to another hospital, as well as work to get classes in the neighborhoods of the city. 
• TV screens so that mothers in waiting rooms all over the country can access the material we have created on baby care and breastfeeding.
• Booklets on care for babies after birth
• Boxes of newborn essentials for vulnerable mothers
• Quality content created on social media channels to get the messages out to moms there

What have we been busy with in the last few months?

• Installed 3 large air conditioners in the labor and delivery area ofthe the maternity hospital to improve the comfort of patients and  staff.
• Boxed up 100 boxes of newborn essentials that we give to vulnerable mothers at two maternity hospitals. 
• Trained 30 hospital staff on the basics of creating a Baby Friendly Hospital.
• Provided mental health training for 30 staff working in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and the urgent care unit at the hospital in how to handle anxious thoughts, difficult communication, and stress. 
• Connected donors with the need of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for 12 patient monitors that help to measure oxygen and blood pressure levels. 
• Celebrated World Breastfeeding Week by an awareness raising activity for all staff in the maternity hospital

Most importantly, we have hired a wonderful midwife to do visits with MamiCare Albania, to help teach prenatal classes at the hospital, and to help us make excellent educational content. We are excited to launch into the next season with Esmeralda!

Many thanks to you, our donors, that we can save lives together.

We encourage you to share our work with your friends who might want to join this circle of giving. 

Links:

• Mother and Child Hospital Foundation
• Our MamiCare Albania website