At Medical Teams, we know that healthy women and children are the first step to creating healthier communities. And yet, they are also at a higher risk of disease and death in places of conflict and disaster. Our maternal and child health programs are helping change that.
Children shouldn’t die from preventable causes, like malaria or malnutrition. Mothers should survive childbirth, even if they have complicated pregnancies. Babies should be cared for by skilled providers. Together, we can making this a reality!
We work in places where mothers often give birth alone and without basic medical supplies. All women need access to health care throughout their pregnancy, as well as during and after birth. In fact, the first 48 hours after birth are the most critical time for a newborn’s survival.
Your gifts help make sure pregnant women receive prenatal care and are able to give birth in a clinic with the help of a skilled birth attendant. If something goes wrong, having access to emergency care like C-sections can save the lives of mothers and infants.
Once their babies are born, you help mothers learn the importance of breastfeeding. You provide vaccines and treatments for illnesses. You enable doctors to check for malnutrition and supply therapeutic foods so children can grow healthy.
Your generosity helps women like Janet, who overcome so much on their journeys to motherhood.
Maternal and child health often focuses on the early part of a child’s life, but our programs continue investing in children’s health long after they’re out of the newborn stage. All children deserve the chance to be kids — healthy, smiling, and playful.
To that end, your gifts help provide vaccinations and primary health care for children. When children get sick, their parents can bring them into clinics to see a provider. Through our community health work, people from within the communities we serve help educate and connect their neighbors to care. They can even do basic medical treatments, like provide anti-malaria medication and screen for malnutrition.
Malnourishment is one of the leading causes of death in children under 5. Your generosity means that clinics have emergency nutrition on hand to treat malnourished children. Medical Teams nutritionists help teach families how to prepare healthy, nutritious meals. They also help families plant gardens to grow their own food. It’s one small way your gift keeps giving, helping build a sustainable future so families can thrive long after we’re gone.
We leverage the strength of women as leaders in their communities. Mothers are often the backbone of their households. They’re also eager to share their gifts with their neighbors. We work alongside women in the communities we serve to promote and educate on healthy behaviors.
To learn more about how healthy women help create a healthier world, join our movement that’s championing health and wholeness for women and children around the world!
Providing loving, life-saving medical care to women and children is just one way we’re living out our calling. When so much is at stake, caring for women and children is more than important — it’s imperative.