ACTIVITY DATES: September 2006 - December 2009

IMPLEMENTING PARTNERS: Institute for Family Health (IFH)

REGION(S): Altaiskiy kray, Irkutskaya oblast, Karelia Republic, Kemerovskaya oblast, Khanty-Mansiyskiy autonomous okrug, Krasnoyarskiy kray, Kurganskaya oblast, Kurskaya oblast, Leningradskaya oblast, Moskovskaya oblast, Nizhegorodskaya oblast, Omskaya oblast, Orenburgskaya oblast, Primorskiy kray, Sakha Republic, Sakhalinskaya oblast, Smolenskaya oblast, Tomskaya oblast, Tyumenskaya oblast, Vologodskaya oblast

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
The Maternal and Child Health Initiative (MCHI) promotes the dissemination of modern approaches to care during pregnancy, delivery and infanthood, and works to preserve the reproductive health of women and men, through training and technical assistance for health care providers in over twenty regions in Russia.  MCHI works with a range of health care facilities in participating regions, including women's and children's clinics, maternity hospitals, family planning centers, district hospitals, and rural feldsher and obstetric stations.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS:

The Institute for Family Health (IFH) developed 17 recommendations on obstestric protocols and disseminated them at national and regional levels.  The recommendations, which were adopted by the Ministry of Health and Social Development and by leading Russian specialists in Obstetrics and Gynecology, address key issues related to maternal and infant morbidity and mortality.

IFH developed a survey on preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) and family planning.  Family Planning Guidelines for HIV+ women were also developed and are now included in the national training package on HIV prevention.

The Omsk Oblast government is providing $6 million in regional funds to roll out the MCHI package to the entire region.  The regions of Vologda and Tumen piloted a rural family planning model and the results of their experience was rolled out to two additional regions.

IFH won three federal tenders from the Government of Russia's National Priority Program on HIV Prevention to improve PMTCT practices among HIV+ women and to disseminate national PMTCT Guidelines developed under MCHI to 29 regions.

In target regions, such as Vologda, Yakutiya and Perm, the maternal mortality rate has decreased between 45 and 52 percent since 2003, at a rate twice as fast as the national average.  The use of modern contraceptives has risen by more than 15 percent, while traumas and infections in newborns have dropped precipitously, with infant mortality decreasing overall by almost 40 percent.

Abortion rates in target regions decreased at an average of 16 percent.