ETHIOPIA / MATERNAL HEALTH

Ahead of Friday's Security Council debate on peacekeeping and the challenges ahead, the Secretary-General's Military Adviser General Chikadibia Isaac Obiakor says, "quality, quality is the word, because we are getting to more complex situations and you need people who can articulate or have the capacity to deal with the issues." UNTV

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:40
• Production Date: 5 August 2010
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN'S FUND - UNICEF
• Subject Topical: POPULATION; HEALTH; HEALTH SERVICES; MEDICINE
• Geographic Subject: ETHIOPIA
• MAMS Id: U100805f

Description

STORY: ETHIOPIA / MATERNAL HEALTH
TRT: 1.40
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / AMHARIC / NATS

DATELINE: JULY 2010, WONDOGENET, ETHIOPIA

Shotlist

1. Various, health clinic
2. Various, health extension workers on rounds
3. SOUNDBITE (Amharic) Senait Shelemew, Health Extension Worker:
“We start giving antenatal care to mothers at around four months of pregnancy when they start to feel the baby kicking. If we find a pregnant woman during our door to door services, we advise her to come and use all types of services including antenatal care.”
4. Various, health clinics
5. SOUNDBITE (Amharic) Martha Getachew, Mother:
“When my other children reached three months I would feed them egg yolk. But I have learned from Senait that breastfeeding is enough. Until my daughter is six months I will only breastfeed her.”
6. Various, Martha with her children

Storyline

At a temporary vaccination site in Wondogenet Ethiopia, mothers gather as a health worker dispenses shots to newborns.

Seventy women die every day in Ethiopia from complications related to childbirth—mostly because they live in rural areas and can’t get to a clinic.

Thanks to UNICEF and its partners that’s rapidly changing—because the clinics are coming to the people.
In the past few years nearly thirty four thousand health extension workers have been trained and sent out to rural areas to advise women that free medical help is available.

SOUNDBITE (Amharic) Senait Shelemew, Health Extension Worker:
“We start giving antenatal care to mothers at around four months of pregnancy when they start to feel the baby kicking. If we find a pregnant woman during our door to door services, we advise her to come and use all types of services including antenatal care.”

Nearly fifteen thousand health posts have been set up throughout the country. Martha started visiting the clinic early in her pregnancy after Senait came to see her at home.

SOUNDBITE (Amharic) Martha Getachew, Mother:
“When my other children reached three months I would feed them egg yolk. But I have learned from Senait that breastfeeding is enough. Until my daughter is six months I will only breastfeed her.”

Although Martha’s baby is now a healthy infant, she continues to receive follow up care from the health clinic, including information about family planning. She is just one of the thousands of women who have benefitted from the programme which aims to halve Ethiopia’s maternal mortality rate.