Physical Health Albania Project #39002

Perinatal education for 1400 mothers in Albania

by Mother and Child Hospital Foundation

Project Report | Apr 18, 2024
Breastfeeding Collective

By Elizabeth Grezda | Executive Director

10 steps Baby Friendly Hospital

Dear Friend,

"Breast is Best" or "Fed is best"?

We at the Mother and Child Hospital Foundaiton believe both are true. We have spent years in education and direct support to mothers to help them feed their babies, and especially to protect the right for each mother and baby to seek to breastfeed if at all possible. We have distributed educational materials, in print and on TVs in patient rooms, we use social media to reach moms all over the Albanian-speaking world, and we provide hands-on help both in the maternity hospital and at home. Still we see mother after mother who has resorted to formula feeding from the first day due to pressure from doctors and midwives. In most cases these professionals are regularly receiving illegal payments from formula companies.

The Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative seeks to step in to advocate for the best practices to allow mothers who want to breastfeed their babies to have the best access possible. This includes:

Hospital-wide policies on breastmilk substitute marketing
Protocols on prescribing breastmilk substitutes
Clear and consistent messaging from medical staff on the benefits of breastfeeding
Strong supports in medical protocols to support the earliest initiation of breastfeeding

The Mother and Child Hospital Foundation realises that this is a fight that has to be fought with strong partners, so we have taken the initiative to form a coalition of decision-makers in the public hospital system, as well as UNICEF, UNFPA, WHO, and Save the Children to convene and coordinate to work together to keep up the pressure on hospitals to make a baby friendly environment..

For our part, we have started a training of trainers to make sure that as many health professionals as possible at Queen Geraldina Maternity hospital will build their skills in creating a breast-feeding friendly environment.We hope to start trainings at Koco Gliozheni Maternity hospital begin as well.

The long-term health benefits from breastfeeding to both mother and baby make this a human rights issue. We are so grateful to our supporters who help us stay in the space and push every day a little more to protect this most basic of rights.

Updates on our other projects:

We continue to fundraise and seek partners to help us meet the ever-present needs for updated equipment in the NICU espeically. Tiny premature babies need many very specialised and expensive pieces of equipment that are always in short supply. This spring we are concluding the purchasing of 10 oxygen meters, a value of approximately $11,000.
We have updated the breastfeeding videos we have in patient rooms to have subtitles so that we can have them playing continuously in the patient waiting areas without sound so that moms-to-be will receive some more support as they wait for appointments.
We are just about to make 100 more Boxes of Joy, a project that puts a box of baby essentials into the hands of needy moms. Our latest mom to receive a box found herself unexpectedly pregnant at 16. Her father is disabled and her mother is the sole breadwinner. The father of the baby is also 16 and in school. His mother is a single mother and is blind. They are so grateful for new baby clothes, diapers, toiletries, and a blanket.
Focus on mental health. As we continue to reach mothers through MamiCare, we notice that many mothers need support for baby blues and post-partum. We are working on making resources and building connections that can give these mothers access to compassionate mental health care.

Thank you all for your sustaining support to help us educate, equip, and advocate for each mother and baby in Albania.

Best wishes,

Elizabeth

Skin to Skin

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Dec 19, 2023
Caring for new mothers at the maternity and at home

By Elizabeth Grezda | Executive Director

MamiCare class

Warm greetings from Tirana!

This year we celebrate a major milestone. We have spent a decade now in many different efforts to equip hospitals and new parents, educate medical professionals and parents, and advocate for better health for mothers and babies in Albania.

In 2023, within the walls of the maternity hospital we have been busy caring for mothers by

Hands-on help for mothers recovering from birth, encouraging them as they start their journey of feeding their newborn.
special prenatal classes for mothers who are awaiting birth and who have complicated pregnancies
boxes of newborn essentials to be given to especially vulnerable mothers
giving the NICU tools they need to save lives, including breathing and feeding apparatus
providing videos and booklets in Albanian to teach mothers how to breastfeed, how to care for their baby, and how to care for themselves.

Also this year, we have been focusing on how we can replicate some of our efforts inside the hospital in educating and coming alongside new mothers in their homes, and do this in a sustainable way.

Old structures of support for mothers and babies are crumbling in Albania due to funding and policy changes, migration, and urban living. Many mothers find themselves quite alone after birth, lost in the sea of social media advice, and lacking the caring presence of the older generation or home visits the government used to provide.

New mothers struggle with establishing breastfeeding, understanding the care they need themselves physically and psychologically, and they want to be shown, not just told, how to care for themselves and their babies.

MamiCare is a service for new parents in Albania that we have been incubating that provides:

help from a midwife or lactation consultant at home or online
access to high quality prenatal classes both online and in-person
breast pumps for rent, and other tools to help establish and maintain breastfeeding.
mom's support groups online and in person

Through MamiCare we have been able to visit hundreds of mothers in their homes and help them with everything from washing their baby to dealing with difficulties in breastfeeding. This year alone we have regularly held prenatal and first aid classes in the community through MamiCare, and we have encouraged new moms to meet and learn together in mom's groups.

We look forward with hope to the next decade, as well as a realism that the fight is still on and we need to focus our efforts on securing basic human rights for mothers and their babies surrounding birth.

We thank YOU, our community of supporters for making all of this work possible. Each mother and baby that is helped by your giving is a huge investment into the future of Albania and the world.

Have a wonderful holiday and a prosperous New Year 2024!

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Grezda

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Aug 21, 2023
Fighting High Infant Mortality in Albania

By Elizabeth Grezda | Executive Director

Infant Mortality in Albania

Thank you so much for your generous giving to safeguard the futures of new mothers and newborns at maternity hospitals in Albania.

Regular prenatal classes with expecting and new mothers, hands-on help for newborns to start to breastfeed, video and booklet educational materials accessible to mothers, and life-saving equipment for the neo-natal intensive unit have helped us see medical staff and parents apply best practices for mother and baby care.

Our work to support breastfeeding is based on extensive evidence that breastfeeding saves lives, improves health and cuts costs in every country worldwide. According to UNICEF, breastfeeding offers advantages including:

Infant health: Breastfeeding protects children from a vast range of illnesses, including infection, diabetes, asthma, heart disease and obesity, as well as cot death (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome)
Maternal health: Breastfeeding also protects mothers from breast and ovarian cancers and heart disease
Relationship-building: Breastfeeding supports the mother-baby relationship and the mental health of both baby and mother
Worldwide benefits: The benefits are seen in both high- and low-income countries, with a study published in The Lancet in 2016 finding that increasing breastfeeding rates around the world to near universal levels could prevent 823,000 annual deaths in children younger than five years and 20,000 annual maternal deaths from breast cancer

Supporting Breastfeeding in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Breast pumps and support

We are making available good breast pumps and individualized support to mothers who may not have access so they can avoid expensive and lower-quality formula. One mother who was given a pump to help her with her premature twins was able to build up a supply of life-saving breast milk.

We continue to advocate for the use of breastmilk in the NICU setting to reduce infection and give the premature babies the best chance possible.

Supporting Breastfeeding on the ward

In order to help mothers initiate breastfeeding as early as possible and give them the confidence they need to continue breastfeeding, our midwife makes the rounds of the ward where mothers are resting after giving birth and offers individual help. It is very common in Albania that mothers are told they have no milk and need to switch to formula on the first day after they give birth. We always encourage them that they have enough milk for their baby and teach them how to keep up their supply.

Mothers are carefully shown how to get the precious colostrum milk on the first day, using techniques of breast massage and hand expression, as well as what to look out for when they go home to make sure their babies are getting enough to eat.

Multiplying our Impact

As we look into this year, we want to be able to focus on training other midwives and on having more prenatal classes that are accessible to mothers who want to learn.

With September's Little by Little Campaign, our donors will be invited to join us once again in saving the lives of mothers and babies. Thank you for being a part of the change with us and helping Albania meet its goals of lowering infant and maternal mortality rates.

Lifesaving stock of breastmilk

mom breastfeeding

NICU baby Albania

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