Filling the maternal mental health gap in Namibia

Mental disorders, predominantly depression, affect 15.3% of pregnant and 19.8% of post-partum women in developing countries, including sub-Saharan Africa, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The WHO has consequently recommended that 239 000 full-time positions for maternal health and mental health, such as midwives, psychologists, and nurses, be created in low and middle-income countries across the world.

This recommendation has led to the establishment of the eMAMA project. This project focuses on developing postgraduate training programmes for maternal mental health in sub-Saharan Africa. The University of Namibia (Unam) and the International University of Management (IUM), along with eight other universities in five different countries, have joined the project.



Training

Namibia, Zambia and Malawi are of particular interest to the project, as they have “an urgent demand for higher education and screening and treatment protocols of maternal mental disorders in primary care settings,” according to the project’s stated goals.

As such, a three-day training event is being held in Windhoek aimed at health educators and lecturers from local and international institutions, which started on Tuesday. The programme is aimed at training healthcare professionals who will be responsible for maternal and prenatal care in their respective countries’ health systems.

The project, led by the Finnish Turko University of Applied Sciences, was launched in 2023 and will continue to run until the end of 2026.

Funded by the European Union’s Erasmus Capacity Building Programme, the project has a budget of 888 875 euros (equal to about N$17 million at the time of publication).

The project has four stated goals: to explore the best maternal mental health practices, to develop postgraduate training programmes, to develop an eMAMA mobile application and to ensure project visibility.