Students undertaking nursing at Mount Kenya University have been equipped with skills on helping both mothers and children after delivery during a two-week session that concluded last week at the university’s headquarters in Kicukoro District.

The training was conducted through the partnership between the university and the National Council of Nurses and Midwives and the Rwanda Association of Midwives.

The training benefitted a total of 67 nursing students who got skills on self-confidence which the trainers said was necessary for the nurses to provide quality care before, during and after childbirth.

The training was offered through the 5,000 Happy Birthday Project founded by the International Council for Midwives and United Nations Population Fund where Rwanda is among 80 benefitting countries.

Dr Marcelline Kamande, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor in charge of Academic and Research Affairs at MKU hailed the skills shared to the students during the training and said she was confident they will be vital when the students get into practice.

Kamande said, "Many mothers still lose their lives during child delivery and, as long as there is a project that looks to build the capacity for midwives, we want to respond to this issue by preparing our students with the requisite skills to help mothers and babies during this critical time.

"It is a big win for us [MKU] and we are looking forward to working even more closely with these projects to ensure the training programme can benefit more students from our university in the future.”

During the programme, the students were trained by experienced master trainers from different hospitals around the country.

As future midwives, the students also undertook series of practical sessions that included helping mothers who bleed after birth.

Elvis Benimana, one of the trainees told The New Times that the training has left them with a serious package especially in dealing with complications that mothers or babies face during delivery which he said would come in handy when they start to practice.

Josephine Murekezi, the Chairperson of Rwanda Association of Midwives, said the training is not only being given to nursing students but to nurses from across the country to ensure the maternal childbirth complications are significantly reduced.

"We organize these training to improve nurses’ competences in maternal services, though we still have shortage of midwives while the number of mothers looking for maternal health services continue to increase,” she said.

So far, 2,896 healthcare service providers, including nurses, doctors and pediatricians, have been trained under the project across the country.