More Happy Birthdays
The More Happy Birthdays Project, supported by Latter-day Saint Charities (LDSC) and the Rwanda Ministry of Health (MoH), has improved the provision and experience of care for women and newborns in Rwanda by training maternal and newborn health providers in life-saving skills. The project aimed to improve competencies of healthcare providers in maternal and neonatal services through innovative clinical trainings and mentorships, using a low-dose and high-frequency approach.
The More Happy Birthdays (Rwanda) project builds on the success and lesson learnt from the 50,000 Happy Birthdays projects implemented in Rwanda from 2018 to 2020 and has enabled more midwives and other providers to continue saving lives at birth. Through the project, the Rwanda Association of Midwives trained care providers using the Helping Mothers Survive (Jhpiego) and Helping Babies Survive (American Academy of Pediatrics) suite of programmes. Innovations included the use of the Safe Delivery App for training and data collection and digitalised mobile-friendly monitoring and evaluation tools using the Kobo toolbox platform. The use of digital tools improved the training efficiency and reduced human error during data collection.
The consortium of partners supported the MoH and Rwanda Biomedical Center to implement training and low dose, high frequency practice in 112 health facilities in Rwanda using traditional training resources and integrating the Safe Delivery App. Activities to strengthen the Rwanda Association Midwives aimed to support and provide continuing professional development opportunities, increase membership and visibility of the Association, and become more sustainable.
Before the project, it was very difficult to train others, the materials we had were only prepared in English, and this required always internet source to access the modules content. Now after the project came, things are very easy for me to train champions using the two applications.
112
health facilities were implemented and trained using low-dose, high-frequency practices
1,500
MNH providers trained
42%
increase in the correct and timely administration of Magnesium Sulphate for women
Project Impact
After the project, there was a 42% increase in the correct and timely administration of magnesium sulphate for management of women’s high blood pressure. The training of multidisciplinary teams improved confidence, competence, interprofessional respect and teamwork which has led to improved quality of care. Improved networking and partnerships improved the visibility and status of the midwives’ association and the midwifery profession in Rwanda.
