Medical Specialists Meet to Improve Health of Infants, Mothers
Kosovo's doctors and nurses gathered in Pristina, Kosovo for two days to review practices and plan future actions to help promote healthier babies and mothers. The conference, "Improving Outcomes of Pregnancy: A Perinatal Medicine Continuing Education Conference," brought together 530 medical professionals September 20-21, 2007 to study techniques to improve the survival of premature babies and to help ensure healthy pregnancies and births.
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| USAID’s Alliance for Healthy Newborns is working to improve community- and hospital-based care for infants and their mothers |
Dr. Michael Farbman, USAID/Kosovo Mission Director, joined Dr. Fadil Kryeziu, Deputy Minister of Health, in opening the conference. The conference was led by faculty and staff from the Dartmouth Medical School and the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center of Lebanon, New
Hampshire in conjunction with lecturers from the University of Prishtine Clinical Center who have trained in the U.S. as part of USAID’s Alliance for Healthy Newborns project. The project-supported conference provided lectures on the latest evidence-based methods for caring for women during normal and complicated pregnancies and caring for newborns–especially premature infants.
The conference was designed to further develop the capacity and collaboration of the regional hospital system, and present U.S. and Kosovar partners with information on project results to date. Key successes of the project have been the provision of antenatal care to nearly 1,000 women in Family Medicine centers, and improvements in neonatal intensive care techniques, such as the use of CPAP respiratory support and administration of the medication surfactant that has resulted in increased survival for premature babies.
The Alliance for Healthy Newborns is an 18-month program designed to assist in improving the care of pregnant women and newborns by working at the community (family medicine) and hospital levels across Kosovo. The project brings together public and private sector partners to address priority health needs of maternal and infant survival. The project is led by Dartmouth Medical School, with partners AmeriCares Foundation, Kosovo’s Ministry of Health, the University of Prishtine Clinical Center, the Center for the Development of Family Medicine and Family Medicine Centers in six municipalities.
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