Teaching guatemala midwives about postpartum hemorrhage.

Purpose: To evaluate the effect of a culturally sensitive teaching unit on traditional midwives' knowledge of nursing interventions to prevent and treat postpartum hemorrhage (PPH).
Methods: Sixteen midwives participated in a 1-day training program at a Refuge International Health Clinic in the remote town of Sarstun, Guatemala. The quasi experimental study used a one-group, pretest-posttest design. Researchers used a PPH Behavioral Checklist from the American College of Nurse Midwives (ACNM) to assess and compare knowledge of PPH interventions before and after the PPH teaching.
Results: The final analysis included 13 traditional midwives as the subjects. The culturally sensitive teaching improved traditional midwives' knowledge and skills about nursing interventions to manage PPH (pretest M = 1.385/8, posttest M = 4.846/8).
Conclusions: Results of this pilot project suggest a culturally sensitive oral teaching in the primary language of the participants positively affects traditional midwives' knowledge and skills to manage PPH. Future training should be presented in a similar format to meet the needs of illiterate audiences in resource-poor settings.