Physical Health Bulgaria Project #55319

Nurse Family Partnership Program in Bulgaria

by Trust for Social Achievement Foundation

Project Report | Mar 28, 2023
Making the (international) connections

By Kamelia Tzeneva | Project Lead

Dear supporters and friends of our home-visiting service,

I would like to thank you all on the behalf of the Trust for Social Achievement and the Nurse-Family Partnership team for your support and engagement with our mission. With your help, we are continuing to stand by young economically disadvantaged mothers and to support them in the exciting, but also scary adventure of being a first-time mom.

We would like to proudly share with you one big step that we recently took towards ensuring the sustainability of home-visiting service for vulnerable first-time parents. We recently organized one of our biggest advocacy events so far, gathering over 40 experts and decision-makers around the table to hear from two very special guests: International guests at the roundtable were Ms Carolyn Wilson, Head of Child and Maternal Health Support in the Scottish Government, responsible for the implementation of NFP nationally, and Dr Gena O'Keefe, Consultant to Baltimore’s Strategy for Improving Pregnancy Outcomes, who oversees the successful implementation of NFP at the local level.

The National Round Table brought the wisdom and knowledge gathered over many years of implementing the service in the contexts of the US and Scotland – and what the speakers had to share was truly moving. Ms Wilson shared that in Scotland, research has shown that, once introduced as a national programme, the home-visiting service for vulnerable mothers increased the wellbeing of women and children whose outcomes had not changed for years through the universal service. Talking about the US experience, Dr. Gena O'Keefe portrayed how thanks to the intervention and the coordinated efforts of all stakeholders, after only ten years of Nurse-Family Partnership in Baltimore, an impressive 20% drop in infant mortality in the city was achieved.

The Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Policy Ms. Nadia Klissurska, who opened the event, expressed her support for NFP and stressed that it is one of the most effective interventions related to maternal health care. Support for the national dissemination of the program was also expressed from key experts in the field, including doctors’ and midwifes’ associations and university professors.

We are continuing forward towards our goal, knowing that with your help, the support of our international colleagues and forward-thinking decision makers, we are on the right track!

Become our donor and be part of the change!

Links:

Visit the TSA website to learn more about our work!

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Dec 6, 2022
The Story of Fanny and Baby Yoni

By Kamelia Tzeneva | Project Lead

This time around we are excited to share with you a personal story – a story which illustrates how your long-term commitment as donors enables us to, in turn, support the moms and pregnant women whom we work with. Your help is invaluable to us – we hope that you will feel this when reading about the growth and successful parenting of only one of many families our team supports.

The proud parents in the photo are Fanny and Mitko, and they are holding their most precious - eight-month-old Yoni.

Fanny is 20 years old, from Sofia. She has been meeting with the home-visiting nurse Nellie from the Sofia-based team of Nurse-Family Partnership since the fourth month of her pregnancy. Complications towards the end of her pregnancy made this period extremely stressful for Fanny - and that's when Nellie's support proved even more valuable to her. Yoni was born underweight and both he and Fanny spent the first two weeks after the birth in hospital, where Nellie visited them regularly. After they were discharged, Yoni quickly began gaining weight and catching up with his peers, now weighing the impressive 8 kg!

About her involvement in the program, Fanny says it has been extremely beneficial and helped her gain confidence in her parenting skills. Nellie, on the other hand, says with a smile that Fanny is very inquisitive, reads the materials with interest and applies what she has learned in her everyday care for little Yoni. Currently, one of the topics Fanny and Nellie are discussing is proper feeding and foods that are appropriate for each stage of Yoni's development. Yoni readily accepts the new meals - sweet milk with bread and cheese, a traditional Bulgarian breakfast, and different soups, which he visibly enjoys.

"Yoni is an endlessly curious, energetic and clever baby", says Nelly as he coos on her lap and keeps exploring the world around him with his eyes wide open.

Fanny dreams of securing a good future for Yoni, and when he grows up a little, she would like to go back to high school herself and graduate, opening opportunities for her own future as well.

Fanny and Yoni’s story is just one of many which proves that the long-term professional support which our nurses and midwives provide can transform the experience of motherhood and parenting. Our devoted teams’ work helps families provide the stable ground on which they can then build on and provide successful futures for their children.

Links:

Visit the TSA website to learn more about what we do!

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Jul 20, 2022
The Nurse-Family Partnership service at the tenth-anniversary academy for midwives

By Mustafa Ramadan | Marketing Expert

Dear Friends and Supporters,

We at Trust for Social Achievement would like to take the opportunity to once again thank you for your support! Your becoming part of the Nurse-Family Partnership program means a lot both to us and the mothers receiving our service!

Today, we would like to share with you yet another achievement of ours!

The Trust for a Social Achievement Foundation had the privilege to present its Nurse-Family Partnership service to midwives and specialists dedicated to women's and children's health care throughout the whole country. This occurred during the tenth-anniversary academy for midwives held in Plovdiv. The event was organized by the Alliance of Bulgarian Midwives and the purpose of it was to help professionals exchange experience and good practices.

Our service for vulnerable young mothers and their children received well-deserved attention, particularly in the use of internationally recognized and validated clinical assessments of maternal and child health. Moreover, touched upon were the approaches we use to maintain a high quality of care because of the strict standards and detailed guidelines embedded in the program model.

All health professionals present agreed that there is a need for a similar service to be introduced nationally, especially for high-risk mothers. According to participants in the event, there is a glaring need to develop parenting skills, increase health culture and improve child development at the national level, and midwives also see their place in the implementation of such a program.

During the academy, the Trust for a Social Achievement was awarded a certificate for active participation in the activities of the Alliance of Bulgarian Midwives.

If this achievement of ours inspired you, even more, you can become our donor and contribute to shaping a better future for the mothers in need!

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