As we struggle with shipping costs of paper based training modules, we can't help but think about the power (and featherlike weight) of film as a training medium. Medical Aid Films (MAF) was founded by two obstetricians from University College London (UCL), Professor Eric Jauniaux and Dr Natalie Greenwold, and Fiona Laird, a midwife who is now Head of Midwifery at the North Middlesex University Hospital (UK). A supporter of Medical Aid Films, Gurinder Chadha, says “Using film to convey medical messages is essential in today’s world. One film made in a matter of days can be sent out to millions of people and can affect millions of people’s lives.”
The recent contest on @OpenIdeo in partnership with Oxfam and Nokia included an entry suggesting that educations materials be loaded onto an SD card to be played on health workers' mobile phones, perhaps a brilliant way to distribute MAF images. One very time-consuming effort in many maternal health projects is the re-drawing and translating and production of images of danger signs of pregnancy and management of labor. Low-cost film and digital images can save time and money. The photo above is a still shot from an MAF film-- and it is quite beautifully drawn.
Medical Aid Films recently came to our attention when they sent out an inquiry looking for feedback from midwives in the field on whether a short film on uterine massage for TBAs would be a welcome additional tool for the field. Having just struggled with the inadequacies of trying to sketch uterine massage, the idea of a film was a new opportunity. In addition, it struck us that MAF was not shying away from potentially controversial subjects-- back to the TBA issue! One of the founders, Fiona joined Médecins Sans Frontières in 2006 and was posted to Darfur’s Kalmia refugee camp where she discovered there was little teaching material to pass on her midwifery skills to Traditional Birth Attendants. Her experience inspired the founding of MAF and the group's first animation, “Neema delivers a baby” was created to educate Traditional Birth Attendants and women in the community on the key steps to deliver a healthy baby.
MAF works in a collaborative manner sending drafts of animations out to the field, revising, and then testing in pilot projects. Another animation on the management of Primary Post-partum Haemorrhage (PPH) was tested by practitioners in Senegal. The Senegalese feedback resulted in "two distinct version of the animation, both aimed at low skilled health providers but taking into account the differences in setting and in context, namely whether referral to skilled care was possible within a reasonable period of time." MAF is now embarkin on two pilot projects in Uganda and Mozambique.
