Rutgers Nursing Magazine - Summer 2020

Thanks to a grant from the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), a government entity responsible for administering overseas aid, Iwu will be studying the efficacy of a new two-year curriculum aimed at turning out “community midwives” at faster rates than the current two-and-a-half-year program. “We’ll be following them over five years,” she says, “to see if the shorter curriculum gives them the skills, com- petencies, and community support required to stay in rural communities and conflict-affected regions.” Accelerating Aid, Collaborating with Communities Half a year may not seem like a significant difference, but when the need is so acute, those six months can translate to lives saved. Without OB/GYNs or midwives in their communities, pregnant women in Nigeria often rely on traditional birth attendants, many of whom are untrained. That helps to explain why 1 in 22 live births in Nigeria ends in maternal death. Compare that, for instance, to the rate for women in Western Europe— where 16 in 100,000 live births result in the death of the mother—and you get a sense of the urgency of the need. A key aspect of the program is its firm grounding in community collaboration. Traditional leaders identify “I look at my work in Nigeria as a way to give back the skills and knowledge I’ve gained here.” N I G E R I A