AdOPT ORGANISES REFRESHER TRAINING FOR MIDWIVES ON BASIC OBSTETRICS SCAN

August 19, 2022 | News Feed | Reading time: 6 min

AdOPT has organised a four-day refresher training on basic obstetrics scan for a team of midwives from two districts in Kintampo North and South in the Bono East Region in order to assist research on maternal health.

The training, which took place at the Brenda/Alice Pregnancy School in Kintampo from Monday, August 15, 2022 to Thursday, August 18, 2022 was geared towards equipping the midwives with requisite skills and knowledge needed to perform ultrasound scans on pregnant women who have been recruited as participants for the AdOPT project, a study being conducted by the Kintampo Health Research Centre.

An Ultrasound scanner being used by a midwife

The AdOPT study which is a part of the Pregnancy Risk Stratification Innovation and Measurement Alliance (PRiSMA) is being funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Its main objective is to document outcomes of pregnancies in order to inform the development of clinical care protocols or interventions that will help improve maternal health and reduce the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes.

In line with the objective of the study, participants received hands-on ultrasound training and were updated on obstetric scan procedures such as probe positioning, lie or presentation, among others to enable them produce successful study results. The training was overseen by Dr. Abena Konadu Yawson, an Obstetrician Gynecologist with the Ghana Health Service and Madam Millicent Dapaah, a midwife specialist.

A midwife recieving hands-on training from a facilitator

Dr. Yawson seized the opportunity to admonish the midwives to put what they had learnt into practice for the benefit of the research centre as well as the pregnant women they attend to. She explained to the attendees what to expect from the evaluation that would follow the training and urged them to put in extra effort to meet a target score of ninety percent. Additionally, as part of their instruction in ultrasonography, the facilitators assessed the photos that the participants had taken.

Dr.Yawson engaging the Partcipants during the last day of training

Salamatu Iddrisu, a midwife and a participant of the training admitted that prior to the training, they were oblivious of how to perform a ultrasound scan on pregnant women, but the training has given them the chance to receive practical training and knowledge that will help midwives determine the sex of a child, the lie of the foetus, the location of the placenta as well as the heart rate of the foetus. According to her, participants gained knowledge of the best procedures and most recent developments through the refresher course.