Staff preparing for life-changing trip

Photo: The team (l–r)—Ursula Harrisson (Midwife/Obstetric Risk Manager), Dr Natasha Mohammed (Senior Specialist Registrar), Dr Edward Maclaren (Specialist Registrar), Mr Roger Marwood (Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist), Monal Archarya (Midwife/Labour Ward core), Carmel McCullough (Senior Midwife/Clinical Skills Specialist).

A team of midwives and doctors are preparing to travel to Gimbie in Western Ethiopia in December to provide emergency obstetric training to local health practitioners.

The team will work with three hospitals in the local area, training around 20 local people—many of whom have only basic medical training.

This is the second time a group of Chelsea and Westminster staff have travelled to Gimbie, where 1 in 21 women die during pregnancy and childbirth. It's part of an ongoing project, which will see a team of staff make the trip twice a year.

They will be teaching basic skills in emergency obstetric care including how to stop bleeding, resuscitation techniques and skills to manage difficult deliveries such as when a baby is in a breech position.

Mr Marwood said: "The people we will be working with in Ethiopia who have only basic or no medical training. For example, staff who are originally employed as cleaners in the hospital can end up working as healthcare assistants with very little training and having to care for women with serious obstetric complications."

The team will be taking a range of training equipment such as mannequins, to teach basic skills that will hopefully enable the local staff to help save the lives of women and their babies. By continuing to educate and train the staff in Ethiopia, the long-term quality and standard of care that the women receive in Gimbie will improve.

They will also undertake some active work in the rural areas of Ethiopia and see people with underlying medical conditions and infections such as malaria which are uncommon in the UK.

Mr Marwood continued: "In this country it is uncommon to see women with fulminating eclampsia or a ruptured uterus because, obstetric teams regularly participate in mandatory training which enable them to recognise the early signs and start treatment.

"It will be a unique experience for everyone and we're all getting very excited."

The team chosen were selected following written applications, which were assessed by a committee who made the final decision.

• Support the team travelling to Gimbie by making a donation