Perinatal education for 1400 mothers in Albania

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

Links:

• Mother and Child Hospital Foundation
• Follow our work in the community on Mamicare Albania