Antenatal classes for pregnant Syrian women on maternal health outcomes

Abstract

Alliance of International Doctors (AID), Esenler Maternity and Child Health Hospital (EMCHH) implemented an educational project on pregnancy and maternal health targeting pregnant Syrian women in Esenler District of Istanbul. The Project aims were increasing health literacy, service utilization and social integration among the pregnant Syrian women. The Project carried out with twelve groups for twelve months. Each group had twelve or fifteen women trained for six hours within a month and reached to a hundred seventy women between October 2017 and October 2018. The Motherhood school was practiced in EMCHH. A hundred twenty four women of participants filled in-person satisfaction surveys. Data was obtained from seventy seven women about their delivery experiences through phone surveys. Eighty postnatal home visits were conducted by medical voluntary teams who observed general health of mothers and babies along with the mothers’ knowledge and practices. According to the results, twenty three point four percent of the participants were under eighteen years old and eight point nine percent were above thirty five years old. Eighteen point eight percent had four or more pregnancies. Of the hundred twenty four survey participants, a hundred eighteen visited EMCHH for antenatal care, a hundred twenty three reported high satisfaction and benefits with the trainings and a hundred twenty two reported satisfaction with its scope. High awareness and practice of breastfeeding, vaccination and contraceptive use were observed during postnatal visits.

Keywords

• Syrian refugees
• women health
• maternal health
• pregnancy
• motherhood
• antenatal classes

References

1. Reference 1: Gaziantep University Institute for Migration
2. Reference 2 :the Syrian Refugee Conference in Gaziantep