Reduce maternal mortality with care that respects traditional community practices
“[The casa staff] respected my beliefs, they respected my traditional clothing, and they respected the presence of my midwife with me.”
-Casa Materna Patient
“I always bring my pregnant women [to the Casa Materna] and they help a lot. There were times before when the women died because there wasn’t help from other people. We were alone and in charge. Then when the Casa came, it helped a lot and it is for the well-being of everyone, not just of some but everyone.”
-Local Midwife
Location: Rural Guatemala
Impact Global Health Alliance-Guatemala (IGHA-G), an alliance between the nonprofits Impact Global Health Alliance and Curamericas Global, uses a community health model to improve maternal health outcomes in Indigenous communities in rural Guatemala.
Because government-operated facilities staff often do not speak local dialects or allow midwives, more than half of women in rural Guatemala give birth at home without skilled birth attendants. As a result, this population has higher rates of maternal and child mortality.[1,2]
IGHA-G establishes free birthing centers, or Casas Maternas, where staff speak local languages and midwives are integrated into operations. It also trains local mothers and midwives to increase community knowledge on safe birthing practices.
Before building a Casa, IGHA-G consults the community to assess interest, moving forward if they are receptive.
Each Casa is staffed by a trained nurse and two local support staff. Midwives encourage clients to deliver in a Casa and assist in the delivery.
IGHA-G’s four Casas have reduced infant mortality rates by 35% and maternal mortality by 63% in project areas. The cost of the program is US $14.05 per beneficiary per year, significantly less than the $26.02 per person average cost of a delivery in a government-run facility.[3,4]
Learn more: https://impactglobalhealthalliance.org/projects/guatemala/
More ways to help
In Asia and Africa, BRAC uses a community health model focusing on mothers and their young children. Lwala Community Alliance uses a community health model to treat preventable diseases in Kenya.
For more guidance and organizations working in community health, see CHIP’s Community-Based Approaches to Health Guide.
Notes
[1] Lievense, B., Leach, K., Modanlo, N., Stollak, I., Wallace, J., Dominguez, A., Valdez, J., Valdez, M., & Perry, H. B. (2024). Improving Maternity Care Where Home Births Are Still the Norm: Establishing Local Birthing Centers in Guatemala That Incorporate Traditional Midwives. Global Health: Science and Practice, 12(5). https://doi.org/10.9745/GHSP-D-24-00057
[2] Stollak, I., Valdez, M., Rivas, K., & Perry, H. (2016). Casas Maternas in the Rural Highlands of Guatemala: A Mixed-Methods Case Study of the Introduction and Utilization of Birthing Facilities by an Indigenous Population. Global Health, Science and Practice, 4(1), 114–131. https://doi.org/10.9745/GHSP-D-15-00266
[3] Perry, H. B., Stollak, I., & Valdez, M. (2023). Reducing inequities in maternal and child health in rural Guatemala through the CBIO+ Approach of Curamericas: 10. Summary, cost effectiveness, and policy implications. International Journal for Equity in Health, 21(2), 202. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-022-01762-w
[4] Bresnahan, B. W., Vodicka, E., Babigumira, J. B., Malik, A. M., Yego, F., Lokangaka, A., Chitah, B. M., Bauer, Z., Chavez, H., Moore, J. L., Garrison, L. P., Swanson, J. O., Swanson, D., McClure, E. M., Goldenberg, R. L., Esamai, F., Garces, A. L., Chomba, E., Saleem, S., … Nathan, R. O. (2021). Cost estimation alongside a multi-regional, multi-country randomized trial of antenatal ultrasound in five low-and-middle-income countries. BMC Public Health, 21, 952. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-10750-8