Cauca - 2019

Safe pregnancies and births in the department of Cauca.

In the department of Cauca there are negative outcomes of pregnancy and childbirth that show worrying figures, which proves the need for effective intervention to improve the situation of pregnant women and newborns.

Since 2016, we have been working with local authorities, with health care provider institutions and with women directly, in order to build bridges to ensure safe gestations and births in this department. All this was done with the financial support of MSD, Merck for Mothers, until May 2019. This process was governed by the guiding principle of adapting the norms and guidelines to the conditions of each territory, to the particular and cultural needs of the population and, of course, to the available resources.

Our objective during this period of work was:

To promote comprehensive health care and attention in the first 1000 days of life, through the articulation of the community and institutional, in selected municipalities of the department of Cauca, Colombia.

The strategies we used for this purpose are described below:

• Characterization of the forms of health care, perceptions and felt needs that the community has regarding the first 1,000 days of life.

• Inquiry on factors of the health care provided by the institutions of the sector in the first 1,000 days of life, which affect the acceptability by the community.

• Support for the coordination and articulation between the community and institutions for comprehensive health care in the first 1,000 days of life.

• Advice for the development of strategies for the promotion of health in the first 1,000 days of life and prevention of its alterations, involving the community and the institutions, and seeking the complementation of their actions within the framework of the Territorial Integral Action Model (MAITE) and the communities' own health models.

• Improvement of the community's capacities so that it can be the subject of its own care and can work with the institutional framework in guaranteeing its fundamental right to health.

• Support for the improvement of institutional and inter-institutional processes related to the attention and care of the first 1,000 days, so that these are adapted to the territorial context.

• Evaluation of health gains in the first 1,000 days and the improvement of health care and care, through indicators, quality indexes built from milestones and the implementation of good health care practices and care that are appropriate to the cultural context of the municipalities.

It is with satisfaction that we conclude this long term process, with the expectation of continuing it soon.