Self Care

A Guide for Frontline health workers to support Individual’s Self Care in Sexual and Reproductive health

Self-care is the ability of individuals, families and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and cope with illness and disability. To support evidence-based self-care practices by individuals and families, the front-line health workers/Community health workers need to be well-equipped to provide reliable evidence-based information. An attempt was made by SWACH in the form an Illustrated guide in 2022 to help Community health workers to generate awareness in the community on self-care in relation to safe abortion. Under this project, SWACH revised the illustrated guide developed in 2022 as per the latest guidelines of WHO on Self-care in relation to safe abortion and family planning including Decision Making Tool (DMT) on family planning. In addition, a pictorial booklet was also developed for community on the same theme.

The study was conducted between 10.04.2023 and 09.08.2023 over a period of 4 months with funding from WHO with the following specific objectives:

  • To develop an illustrated guide for the front-line health workers/community health workers on safe abortion, post-abortion care and contraception.
  • To develop a handbook/booklet for the women with information on self-care with pictures.
Download PDF

A package for self care during perinatal period

Develop a package for self-care during perinatal period to improve maternal and child health as per WHO guidelines (2019)

Introduction

The perinatal period is critical for the health of the mother and her baby. Implementing good perinatal care can reduce the risk of complications during pregnancy, promotes foetal health and development, minimize complications in infants, and reduce the risk of maternal and neonatal tetanus. Self-care interventions are important for empowering mothers and families to take care of themselves and the community healthcare providers to promote health. Strengthening self-care during this critical period through innovative approaches is essential for improving maternal and child health and reducing healthcare costs imposed on healthcare system. Further, the Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of self-care and the need for innovative approaches such as mobile health and telemedicine to supplement healthcare services.

Download PDF

Maternal self care intervention

Supporting implementation of maternal self-care intervention in South-East Asia Region

Introduction: Self-care in maternal health involves taking proactive steps to maintain physical health, emotional stability, and psychological well-being throughout pregnancy, intrapartum, and postnatal period. With a focus on the importance of self-care in maternal and child health, the following study was done to examine the status of self-care interventions for improving ante-natal, intra-partum, and post-natal care in the South East Asia Region of WHO.

Objectives: The overall goal was to review the status of self-care interventions for improving ante-natal, intrapartum, and post-natal care in countries of the South-East Asia Region of WHO. The specific objectives were:

Download PDF

Developing awareness package on self-care- Abortion, post abortion care and Contraception

World Health Organization (WHO) has provided a framework of self care interventions for health. Based on these a need assessment and a feasibility study was conducted by Foundation for Survival for Women and Children (SWACH) to understand the awareness of the women regarding Medical Termination of Pregnancy. The target audiences were women in pre-conception and peri-conception period and it was concluded that there were gaps in the knowledge of the women regarding abortion laws, risks and complications of pregnancy, restoring health after undergoing abortion and prevention and control of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Keeping in mind that a lot of scope exists for Self care interventions in managing abortions, post abortion complications and contraception, SWACH planned another study with the following goal and objectives:

Goal

To develop and check the feasibility of implementation of an awareness package on self-care relating to abortion, post abortion complications and contraception.

Download PDF