Telemedicine and experienced midwives in the Congo: Making a huge difference in the lives of many

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is the home to more than 80 million people. The DRC rural areas have one of the highest infant mortality rates (IMR) and maternal mortality rates (MMR) in the world. The DRC IMR for rural areas is 75 to 100 per 1,000 live births. The DRC MMR for the same areas is an astonishing 680 – 700 death per 100,000 live births. The PROSAMI program advocates the training of committed Congolese midwives, using the International Council of Midwives (ICM) standards, to the level of advanced midwife (ADM). Each ADM would then proceed to oversee a rural maternal and infant’s clinic in the designated Tshitenge district of DRC, where the IMR has escalated to 125/1,000 live births. PROSAMI brought the first four Congolese candidate midwives to the USA in January, 2015, for 8 months of didactic training, thus laying a solid foundation for the unique training model designed to meet maternal and infant’s healthcare needs in the rural areas in low resource countries. The four candidate midwives returned to their homeland in the DRC in October, 2015, to complete their training, and at the same time they have been assigned the oversight and facilitation of the training for 16 other local midwives, which espouses a cascade training model. PROSAMI has secured a two room pilot center that serves as a classroom, and in the future months this well positioned outpost will be used for the PROSAMI maternal and infant clinic in Mbuji- Mayi, a major city in the Kasai oriental province of the DRC.