By Ibrahim Sorie Koroma, Senior Health Education Officer HEP/MoH
Chief Nursing Officer (CNO), Mary FullahThe Ministry of Health, in collaboration with its partners, will introduce for the first time the Maternal and Child Health Handbook in the health system come 2025, replacing the maternal book for Antenatal Care (ANC) and child Under-fives card.
Giving the purpose of the handbook at a maternal and child health review meeting held in Bo, Chief Nursing Officer, Matron Mary Fullah noted that the maternal and child health handbook is to strengthen the link between maternal and child health from pregnancy up to five years as well as increasing knowledge of parents (mothers & fathers) through health education, including encouraging better and responsible parenting and promotion of continuum of care. She reiterated that the goal is also to share vital information on referrals, improve communication between client and service providers as well as improve work efficiency of healthcare workers.
Whilst highlighting key components of the handbook, the Chief Nursing Officer continued that the handbook consists of maternal and child health as well as health education messages/information for clients (parents and caregivers). In a nut shell, the hand book will capture vital health records of both the mother and child, replacing the ANC card, Tetanus Toxoid-TT Card, Under-5 card with expanded easy-to-read and pictorial health education messages/information and graphic pictures for better understanding by clients (parents/caregivers)
She also added that the hand book has been introduced in many countries, including Japan and other African countries and has worked well, adding that it was also piloted in three districts in Sierra Leone where lessons leant and success stories were utilized to inform the final and approved version of the handbook, which would be widely distributed and in use across the country.
Talking on digitalization, the Ministry of Health is also planning to digitalize the hand book in the future, but however stated that the paper-based book would be in use until such a time when the necessary infrastructure would have been put in place for smooth and easy-to-use system by healthcare workers. Even Japan which is a model in the implementation of the maternal and child health hand book was using the analogue/paper-based version but later introduced the digitalized version and both are being used side-by-side, Matron Fullah said.
