By Elizabeth Grezda | Executive Director
Prenatal classes continue despite many changes and the restrictions of the pandemic. The main maternity hospital has reintroduced in-person prenatal classes, a new effort to get new and expectant mothers timely information via booklets and television programming, and we continue to identify and serve the most vulnerable mothers by distributing "Boxes of Joy".
Due to vaccination of medical staff and a decrease in case numbers for COVID-19, in-person prenatal classes at the hospital will once again resume. We are grateful to have been given the opportunity to outfit a room off the ward where mothers who have difficult pregnancies stay. There, we have created a clean and calm space where prenatal classes can be held and other resources can be put into the hands of expecting mothers. Together with one of the most experienced trainers at the hospital, we will begin to offer classes to mothers on that ward and to other expectant mothers as well.
In addition, we have been asked to spearhead a new project to outfit patient rooms and waiting areas with TV monitors and to create educational material to be shown there. Numerous studies show that television is an effective way to communicate important health messages. We are grateful for the sustaining giving of the GlobalGiving community that has allowed us to embark on this exciting project. We hope to see good success of this so that we can expand the pool of information there and online, and hopefully to the other maternity hospital as well.
A program we have continued over many years is that of “Boxes of Joy”, where we are able to help provide for the basic needs of the newborn. The small gift shop we operate as a social business at the hospital gets calls from nurses and midwives to link needy mothers to us for a box. We have prepared 30 boxes ready to distribute, with an aim to help at least 2 families a week in this way. We have helped a young father whose wife had passed away in childbirth to care for his newborn son and young daughter. We also were able to come alongside mothers with very little support from family, or who came from vulnerable communities, or who struggled with physical or mental disabilities. We are grateful to be able to help in this small way.
By Elizabeth Grezda | Board Member
By Gerta Hagen | Project Leader
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