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Cotopaxi, Ecuador EONC Project

Client: United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

Teresa Tipanquiza, a Traditional Kichwa Birth Attendant, and Mario Chávez, CHS Field Project Manager, Cotopaxi, Ecuador

In Ecuador’s mountainous Cotopaxi province, maternal and neonatal mortality statistics included 102 maternal fatalities per 100,000 births and 8 neonatal fatalities per 1000 births in 2008. Many of these deaths could be prevented if women had access to quality essential and obstetric neonatal care (EONC), but even when health facilities are geographically accessible, they are often unprepared to provide emergency care along levels of care. Cultural barriers also exist: many indigenous women deliver at home with a traditional birth attendant (TBA) who is not trained to provide emergency care.

CHS Services

Under a four-year project to reduce maternal and newborn mortality in Cotopaxi, CHS is supporting the Ministry of Health’s (MOH) strategy to address the country’s underlying causes of maternal and neonatal mortality. The project is developing an integrated network of care that will 1) ensure that women and their children receive continuous maternal and neonatal care and 2) establish referrals between private and public health facilities. To expand access for disadvantaged and isolated populations, the project is bridging the gap between traditional, culture-based care and evidence-based clinical practices.

The CHS team offers key services to:

• Develop a network linking community-based providers and health facilities to provide quality EONC services;
• Increase community access to, demand for, and utilization of EONC network services;
• Monitor the impact of evidence-based maternal-newborn intervention services;
• Work with TBAs to enable them to identify danger signs and risk factors in mothers and newborns and refer them to a skilled-care facility;
• Coordinate activities among TBAs, MOH mobile community health teams, facilities that provide skilled services, community leaders, and community-level non-government organizations;
• Strengthen the cultural acceptability of health facility services; and
• Strengthen the capacity of health facilities to offer high-impact, evidence-based interventions and provide technical assistance to institutionalize quality improvement methods that will increase the quality and availability of EONC care.

Geographic Focus

Cotopaxi province, Ecuador

Partnerships

Ecuador Ministry of Health, USAID/MCHIP Project

For more information, please contact Andrew Gall at agall@urc-chs.com or Jorge Hermida at jhermida@urc-chs.com.

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