Document Type
Article
Department
School of Nursing and Midwifery, Pakistan
Abstract
The Community Midwifery program was introduced in 2007 across Pakistan with the idea that the trained Community Midwives (CMWs) will be deployed back to their ‘native’ rural communities. Hence, they are not employed by government rather they must earn their income by charging fees for their services. It is expected from them to attract clients, establish birth clinics and operate as a small business to support and sustain them financially. However, the CMW training program only teaches students about antenatal, intranatal, postnatal and newborn care, family planning services and awareness of community dynamics and does not include content about setting up a ‘birth station’ and how to market and sustain a small business. We encountered comments from CMWs in a variety of forums that many of them were unable to sustain a birthing station and financially support themselves. Hence a research intervention was designed for them known as ‘Business Skills Training (BST)’ with the objective of enhancing the business skills of CMWs to increase their likelihood of establishing financially sustainable birthing clinics. This article is the description of BST intervention and the process of this training.
Recommended Citation
Lalji, L, Akbar Ali, L, Baig, M, Sewani, R, Lakhani, A, Kaufman, K, & Jan, R. Birth centre management and business skill training for community midwives of Pakistan. Journal of Asian Midwives. 2014;1(1):41–50.
