journeymaa 2019

October 18, 2024

The Maternal Aid Association (MAA) is committed to improving the state of maternal healthcare in Bangladesh, and one way of achieving this has been through the development of education seminars for rural populations. These have been developed following researchthat suggests maternal education improves the maternal mortality ratio (MMR), child health outcomes, and health-seeking behaviour of women (Cleland, 1988; Bicego, 1993; Guldan,1993). To find out more about the current state of maternal healthcare in Bangladesh, please refer to the JourneyMaa 2017 Report. This report explores the baseline knowledge, attitudes and behaviours towards maternal health within rural populations of pregnant women, and it assesses the impact of MAA’s maternal health education (MHE) seminar in influencing this baseline.

This study was carried out in August 2019,during MAA’s flagship summer project, JourneyMaa (JM). The project involves settingup mobile maternal health screening camps in rural Bangladesh in order to provide free basic health checks, medication and educational seminars for pregnant women. The health camps were organised by members from the MAA Bangladesh team and UK JM volunteers. The MAA Bangladesh team included final year medical students and qualified doctors. The UK volunteers consisted of medical students, a qualified pharmacist, midwife and junior doctor.

Moreover, the newborn and foetal complications that arise from pregnant women with NCDs and related risk factors are also severe. For example, pregnant mothers who are obese have an increased risk of stillbirths and congenital malformations amongst other obstetric and neonatal complications (Akil & Ahmad, 2011, Kapur, 2015). Plus, these mothers will be more likely to develop gestational diabetes mellitus, which is a risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes in both the later life of the mother and child (Damm et al., 2016, Song et al., 2018). Additionally, being overweight or obese during pregnancy not only increases the risk of developing diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease, but also increases the risk of pre-eclampsia and postpartum haemorrhage, which are two of the most common causes of maternal mortality in Bangladesh (Khatun et al., 2012, Kapur, 2015, Roy & Shengelia, 2016).