Hyderabad: UoH, Fernandez Foundation to train 'birth doulas'

Hyderabad: The University of Hyderabad (UoH) and Fernandez Foundation (FF) signed a three-year Memorandum of Understanding on Friday for undertaking academic exchange, research, and translational research initiatives between the institutions.

The MoU was signed in the presence of Vice Chancellor Prof. B J Rao and Dr Evita Fernandez, founder and chairperson, FF. Dr Devesh Nigam, registrar, UoH, and Dr Pramod Gaddam, Managing Director, FF, were the signatories from the institutions.

As an initial academic activity and a very unique skill development programme, the training programme for 'birth doulas', who will be trained as professional offering continuous physical, emotional, and informational support to pregnant women and their birth companion during labour, childbirth, and immediate postpartum period.

The programme, approved by the academic council of the university, is in readiness to go online in a blended mode with mandatory hands-on and experiential components by March 2023. This will be open to any woman who passed intermediate exam.

In course of time, more educational and training programmes aligned to the National Education Policy- 2020 and dealing with contextual issues surrounding mother and childcare and collaborative research using co-development and co-creation modalities for interventions to make births safer, respectful and quality acceptable to communities shall be undertaken as part of the MoU.

Prof. Rao opined that "this is a landmark and a unique collaboration in a discipline which is novel and much-needed for expectant mothers in India. I hope that this will pave the way for an initiative that will improve mother and child care in India and provide a model for low and middle-income countries."

Dr.Fernandez while expressing her happiness said "I am delighted to launch this training programme with the UoH. Given the immense burden on the medical fraternity, the birth doula course will be instrumental in improving quality of services offered in the country".

Dr. Gaddam said, "Fernandez Foundation strongly believes in and supports empowered, positive, and evidence-based birthing. We make the birthing journey and experience better for every mother, and this is reflected in our practice. Through this collaboration, we seek to build a strong skilled workforce that can serve as the backbone of quality maternity care in India."

While the multi-disciplinary nature of the university provides many opportunities for collaboration and FF is at the forefront in education, training and respectful mother and childcare, it is envisaged that this is a win-win situation in this area of health care and delivery.