Strengthening care through the Private Nurse Midwives Association of Tanzania

In Tanzania, roughly 12% of women give birth in private sector facilities. A large portion of these facilities are run by NGOs or faith-based organizations, which have been integral in extending reproductive and child health service coverage to rural areas.

One such NGO is the Private Nurse Midwives Association of Tanzania (PRINMAT), whose membership comprises registered nurses and midwives who provide services, including labor and delivery, at community maternity homes. The PRINMAT network has 100 member facilities, and it is expanding. However, only 10% of PRINMAT providers are certified for basic emergency maternal, obstetric, and neonatal care.

SHOPS Plus worked with the Reproductive and Child Health Section of the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly, and Children to assess and strengthen the capacity of twenty selected PRINMAT maternity homes the Mwanza and Geita regions for readiness in basic emergency maternal, obstetric, and neonatal care.

SHOPS Plus assessed the facilities’ human resources and training, equipment, pharmaceutical and laboratory supplies, and availability of job aids and referrals. Working with the Ministry, the project used findings from its assessments to develop improvement frameworks. The frameworks outlined identified gaps and specific interventions to be conducted to improve the service delivery of basic emergency maternal, obstetric, and neonatal care.

Including Access to Finance

These frameworks included strategies to improve clinical and non-clinical factors that affect readiness, such as improving the availability of equipment, supplies, and medicines by linking PRINMAT providers to finance. The project is using training modules to strengthen business activities at the facilities. This helps improve business and financial management factors that affect care. To improve clinical factors, the project is working with the Ministry to facilitate training for 30 PRINMAT providers including on-the-job mentorship for basic emergency maternal, obstetric, and neonatal care at regional referral hospitals. 

Midwives are a critical source of quality care for mothers and babies around the world. They are on the frontline serving those who need it most. SHOPS Plus supports midwives in Tanzania to improve their skills so they can in turn better care for their communities.