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New board game to save lives in Africa

Thursday 13th August 2015
A new board game has been designed to help midwives in Africa better deal with obstructed labour. Image Credit: jonas unruh
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    A board game could help save the lives of mothers and newborn babies in Africa, according to initial findings. 

    Researchers at the University of Manchester have developed a new board game to boost the skills of midwives in Africa when it comes to life-threatening childbirth situations. The game - entitled 'Progression' - aims to teach people about how to detect prolonged and obstructed labour to try and reduce the numbers of women who still die when giving birth to a child.

    According to the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly all of maternal deaths (99 per cent) occur in developing countries, with more than half of these being in sub-Saharan Africa.

    Progression has been designed to teach midwives across the continent to use a partograph, which is a universally used chart to record risk factors such as heart rate, labour progress, blood pressure and temperature. The partograph helps determine whether there are any serious risks to the mother or baby.

    However, for those who are unfamiliar with the system, it can be difficult to complete the chart and help identify what risks either mother or baby is most vulnerable to during labour. In addition, midwives in Africa can often struggle to use the partograph to make decisions on care.

    This increases the risk of maternal death and illness as a result of obstructed and prolonged labour, which is a key issue for many developing countries.

    Progression can be used as an additional teaching resource to refresh the knowledge of midwives. As well as being an affordable option, the board game also enables women to work in groups, which sparks discussion and encourages better use of the partograph.

    Developed by Dr Gaynor MacLean, the game gets players to chart a series of findings from a woman in labour. As they move around the board, they have to answer questions from a random card to progress further.

    Initial findings carried out with 165 midwives in east Africa found that participants considered the game to be useful, entertaining and educational.

    Professor Dame Tina Lavender, from the University’s School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work and lead author of the project, said: "The crucial benefit of using this game is that it allows midwives to make mistakes without endangering lives."

    “The game is designed to provide new knowledge, revise what they already know and discuss with other players the best ways to support women. The feedback from midwives working in these countries during the pilot was overwhelmingly positive.”

    The next step will see Progression developed for larger scale production and distribution.

    Professor Lavender added: “This game has been shown in our pilot to enhance midwives’ skills and give them greater confidence in the use of the partograph. Ultimately this effect will have a significant impact on the outcomes of childbirth for the most vulnerable women and their children in low-income settings.”

    Written by Martin Lambert

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