Infant Deaths Drop After Midwives Undergo Inexpensive Training

Lynn Johnson/National Geographic, via Getty Images

By: Samuel M. Gebru

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Training midwives is very important to achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. 

A recent New York Times article by Donald G. McNeil, Jr., entitled Infant Deaths Drop After Midwives Undergo Inexpensive Training, underscores the importance and progressive results of training traditional midwives in modern medicine. 

McNeil highlights studies that have been conducted with Zambian midwives, concluding that relatively inexpensive training programs can produce results that save hundreds and thousands of lives. 

In Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Global Initiative is continuing its six-year partnership with Hamlin Fistula International by providing full scholarships for eight students at the Hamlin College of Midwives in Ethiopia. The 2011-2015 project is relatively inexpensive when compared with undergraduate education in the United States. 

EGI will fully fund eight students at $4,000 per student per year. That means for $16,000, EGI will be able to fully fund one student that will, in turn, impact the lives of hundreds and thousands of rural Ethiopian mothers-to-be. That's about $140,000 for four years.

Instead of curing obstetric fistula, or funding it, EGI and the Hamlin College of Midwives are focusing on solving the root causes of obstetric fistula: lack of maternal healthcare and lack of awareness. 

By supporting the Ethiopian Global Initiative's Midwives Scholarship Fund, you will help EGI fund the training of Ethiopian midwives to earn a Bachelor of Science degree. Saving lives is as easy as clicking here and making a donation. 

Samuel M. Gebru, an undergraduate student at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, serves as President of the Ethiopian Global Initiative.