New LAMRN project success!

In February 2015 the Lugina Africa Midwives Research Network (LAMRN), in collaboration with University of Manchester, was awarded a Health Partnership grant from the Tropical Health Education Trust (THET). Funding comes directly from the UK Department for International Development (DFID), administered through THET. The two year grant builds on the success of a previous health partnership grant to strengthen research capacity among midwives in six countries in Africa. The new grant will support emerging research leaders in Kenya, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe to tackle maternity care standards in their facilities by training midwives in clinical audit to improve quality of care.

The grant started in April and is a partnership between midwives in Kenya (led by Prof Grace Omoni), Uganda (led by Enid Mwebaza), Zambia (led by Dr Margaret Maimbolwa) and Zimbabwe (led by Dr Christina Mudokwenyu-Rawdon) and the University of Manchester (led by Dr Helen Smith and Prof Dame Tina Lavender, with Dr Rebecca Smyth and Dr Carol Bedwell providing mentoring support in countries).

The two year project will strengthen capacity to conduct clinical audit among midwife practitioners in selected facilities by training midwives, who are rising champions for research in their workplaces, in clinical audit to improve the quality of maternity care. Training will take place in a series of in-country workshops covering the principles of audit. At the end of two years we will share lessons with midwives and key stakeholders in the four countries as well as with other LAMRN midwives. We plan to develop guidance and tools on audit for midwifery practitioners and make these freely available to practitionersin the region.

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