Promoting Maternal Health and Preventing Obstetric Fistula: A Training Curriculum for Community Engagement (PDF of Curriculum Overview: PDF of Training Slides) As part of efforts to prevent obstetric fistula, EngenderHealth works with local government partners in selected countries to establish or strengthen and support community-level committees and volunteers in promoting maternal health and maternal health care-seeking, to help reduce women’s risks of obstetric fistula. This training manual is designed to complement and reinforce existing training materials for local community committees, community health workers and volunteers. The four-day training workshop is aimed at equipping members of local civil society organizations with the knowledge, skills, and tools they will need to promote healthy practices before, during, and after childbirth and to monitor maternal health care–seeking and pregnancy outcomes in their communities.
The Prevention and Management of Obstetric Fistula: A Curriculum for Nurses and Midwives (English, PDF, 4.13 MB)
Nursing and midwifery are both integral to comprehensive obstetric fistula care services. The goal of this curriculum is to train nurses and midwives so that they have the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that will enable them to prevent obstetric fistula and care for clients who are living with obstetric fistula. This comprehensive curriculum, developed by the East, Central, and Southern Africa Health Community (ECSA) with support from USAID and Fistula Care, addresses several critical areas: preventive care, surgical treatment and postoperative recovery, information, education, family and community involvement, counseling, and data collection and use. It also presents learning activities and competency-based skills checklists that help nurses and midwives develop real-world skills for the clinical environment.
Counseling the Obstetric Fistula Client: A Training Curriculum (English, PDF, 2.5 MB; French, PDF, 2.8 MB)
Counseling is an integral part of comprehensive fistula care services. The curriculum guides nurses, midwives, and physicians to help their clients to make informed and voluntary decisions about their care. The curriculum addresses counseling needs related to fistula prevention, treatment, and social reintegration. Health care providers can also find information about how to engage with the client’s family and how to link the client to supportive organizations in the community.
Counseling the Traumatic Fistula Client: A Supplement to the Obstetric Fistula Counseling Curriculum (English, PDF, 3.4 MB, French, PDF, 3.2 MB)
Clients seeking care for traumatic fistula–fistula caused by sexual assault–need access to counseling that addresses the complex effects of their condition. This supplement complements the counseling curriculum to address the physical, social, and psychological impacts specific to traumatic fistula. The supplement also provides information on how health care providers working with traumatic fistula clients can seek support for themselves.
Data for Decision Making in Fistula Treatment Services: A Supplemental Module for Facilitative Supervision (English, PDF, 2.8 MB; French, PDF, 2.6 MB)
In keeping with its commitment to quality improvement, Fistula Care promotes the use of data for decision making. This series of training modules provides clinical supervisors, health care providers, and national-level stakeholders with skills to review and interpret data in order to strengthen health systems and services. The document includes guides for discussion and interactive activities, as well as handouts and other tools to teach lessons about data gathering, analysis, and application. The modules supplement EngenderHealth’s facilitative supervision tools, which emphasize team problem-solving and communication.
Fistula Care Training Strategy (English, PDF, 219KB; French, PDF, 217 KB)
This training strategy seeks to create a uniform training approach and improve the quality of training and subsequent service delivery. It is an outline for future detailed training guidelines and standards.
Training Supervision and Monitoring Checklist (English, PDF, 121KB)
This checklist facilitates the supervision and monitoring of training activities. Forms include: Facility Information; Training Follow Up for Fistula Surgery and Peri-operative Care; Training Follow Up for Fistula Counselors; Additional Supervision/Monitoring for a Fistula Training Site; and Summary Notes and Recommendations from the Supervision and Monitoring Visit.
Digital Stories Facilitator’s Guide (English, PDF, 2.89MB; French, PDF, 2.76MB)
This guide serves as a companion to the “Learn From My Story” series. In order to help people to listen to and use the stories, a facilitator’s guide was created and includes: the text of each woman’s story, discussion questions tailored to each woman’s story, and key messages for facilitators to convey. The intended use of the guide is with three main audiences: health care providers, women with fistula, and community members.
Training Manual for Community Liaisons and Health Center Management Committees (French, PDF, 213KB)
This training manual, developed in Niger, is designed to enhance the knowledge of community liaisons on maternal and newborn health, including: the status of maternal and newborn health globally and in Niger; health services to promote maternal and newborn health; skilled birth attendance and danger signs; family planning; and obstetric fistula. The training manual also addresses communication techniques to promote maternal and newborn health.
Fistula Orientation for Community Members
Fistula Care’s implementing partner in Ethiopia, IntraHealth, has developed materials to orient community leaders about safe motherhood and obstetric fistula. Staff who work with fistula patients lead the one-day orientation with specific community groups, such as local authorities, women’s associations, or community health workers. This presentation (PDF, 622 KB) provides an overview of the Ethiopian maternal health context and fistula’s causes and prevention, ending with the important ways that different groups can be of support.
Training Package for Health Workers
Fistula Care’s implementing partner in Ethiopia, IntraHealth, has developed materials to train health workers on obstetric fistula prevention, identification, and pre-repair care. The course contains a participant handbook (PDF, 604 KB), a facilitator manual (PDF, 1.3 MB), ten modules, a variety of visual aids, and supplementary handouts.
Module 1: Introduction (PDF, 677 KB)
Module 2: Overview of safe motherhood and global maternal morbidity and mortality (PDF, 705 KB)
Module 3: Female reproductive system (PDF, 830 KB)
Module 4: Essential components of antenatal care and emergency obstetric care (PDF, 708 KB) and Cards for Facilitators, (PDF, 69 KB) (including birth preparedness, complication readiness and recognition of danger signs)
Module 5: Prevention of prolonged/obstructed labor (PDF, 1.3 MB) (including use of the partograph)
Module 6: Obstetric fistula–definition, causes and contributing factors, and impact on affected women (PDF, 1.2 MB)
Module 7: Obstetric fistula–identification and diagnosis (PDF, 1.3 MB)
Module 8: Pre-repair care and referral for women with obstetric fistula (PDF, 1.1 MB)
Module 9: Principles of postoperative care and reintegration of women after obstetric fistula surgical repair (PDF, 683 KB)
Module 10: The roles of families, community and the health care system in prevention and care for women with obstetric fistula (PDF, 726 KB)