Mr & Mrs Fertile

Name of the activity: Mr & Mrs Fertile

Country/NMO: Poland (IFMSA-Poland)

Program: Maternal Health & Access to Safe Abortion

Contact information: [email protected]

Type of the activity: Education. Education on health issues for specific societal groups, either in the form of projects (set of tasks for a certain group over a fixed period of time), events (something notable that happens) or conferences (form meeting about ideas related to a particular topic, usually over several days).

General description:

The main objective of our project is to reduce the rate of secondary infertility, with particular reference to developed countries, and also to improve the perinatal care and the pregnant patients’ awareness regarding this topic. Our project is aimed towards people of reproductive age, which is why we meet them halfway in between classes, at shopping malls, sports and student events, birthing classes, the hairdressers’, the cosmetologists, places of employment, enterprises, the town halls or wedding fashion exhibitions. We endeavor to boost the attractiveness of our events. In order to achieve this, we prepare games and other activities, which are to educate our target group in a more distinctive way, e.g. the wheel of fortune which was mentioned earlier,contests of knowledge. To ensure that the knowledge does not evaporate as quickly, each educated person receives a detailed leaflet in form of a „ticket to fertility” or a booklet containing information on the course of pregnancy.

Focus area:

Infertility

Problem statement:

The Program consists of two main sectors. Firstly, it focuses on infertility, defined by the WHO as a social disease. Statistics show that this problem affects from 10 up to 18% of the population. The second issue is to educate society about pregnancy and the perinatal care. The rate of pregnancies resulting in Caesarean section is still too high. According to the data from the WHO 1 in 10 children should be born by CS, while in Poland in 2015 as much as 45% of births happened by this method.

Target groups:

General population, Medical students, Healthcare Students, Other Students, Youth, Women

Beneficiaries:

General population, Medical students, Healthcare Students, Other Students, Youth, Women

Objectives and indicators of success:

The main objectives of our project are:

To deliver facts about the factors affecting fertility and causing infertility (indicator: decreasing the secondary infertility rate, shortening the infertility diagnosis waiting time)

Promoting a healthy lifestyle, which will result in prolonged fertility (indicator: decreasing the secondary infertility rate)

Educating medical students on fertility treatments (indicator: increasing the number of specialists in matters of fertility treatments in the future)

Raising awareness on the course of pregnancy and the physiological changes occurring during that period of time, as well as to draw attention to the benefits of natural childbirth (indicator: decreasing the number of cesarean sections, increasing the frequency of gynecologist appointments during pregnancies as well as the use of midwife’s services)

Drawing attention to the problems regarding peripartum care such as episiotomy, medicalization of pregnancy, limited access to anaesthesia (indicator: decreased number of tokophobias)

Methodology:

Our objectives are fulfilled via widely understood education and promotion of a healthy lifestyle in the interests of our fertility. Via discussions with people of reproductive age we are able to inform them on how to take care of themselves, thereby of their future offspring. The series of events are conducted any place where we can find potential parents: at various wedding fashion exhibitions, during dance classes for couples, at music festivals/concerts, during sports events etc.

We use various eye-catching means in order to raise the attractiveness of our events: „the wheel of fortune”, colorful leaflets representing „fertility tickets” and stickers.

We conduct local workshops and talks about how to take care of one’s fertility, as well as how to properly prepare for pregnancy.

We raise awareness on the importance of gynecological appointments before, during and after pregnancy. We hand out colorful pamphlets in locations, where we can find persons of our interest.

Plans for evaluation:

We launch each lecture with a series of questions considering various factors which may affect our fertility. Next, an educational talk is followed by a thorough comparison of the acquired knowledge with the answers given beforehand. In addition, we conduct a short „before and after” survey.

Apart from that, we also receive multiple messages considering our project. Thus, we have decided to create a Facebook page, where people interested in our campaign can seek answers to all their questions. Thanks to that our evaluation proceeds in a more efficient manner.