Ipas > Smart Women Clubs take off in Vietnam

Smart Women Clubs take off in Vietnam

October 14, 2005

Smart Women Clubs give many Vietnamese women the chance to talk openly about their reproductive-health concerns.

Photo courtesy of John-Leo Dugast, Panos Pictures.

In northern Vietnam, Smart Women Clubs are planting the seeds of knowledge about reproductive-health issues affecting the Asian country of nearly 85 million.

Since 1960, abortion has been permitted by law in Vietnam for a broad range of indications through the second trimester of pregnancy. Limited choice, ineffective distribution and incorrect use of contraceptives have led to persistently high rates of abortion across the country.

Ipas began working there to improve reproductive health, particularly safe-abortion services, in 1995. Last year, we teamed up with the Vietnam Women’s Union, which has a national membership of more than 10 million, to pilot Smart Women Clubs at two commune-level health-care sites in the An Duong and An Lao districts of Hai Phong province.

Clubs are generally open to women of child-bearing age: the newly married, the pregnant, mothers and their kin. The groups meet once a month at the communal health center, village meeting place or occasionally someone’s house to talk about various topics: contraception; safe abortion; pregnancy and delivery; breastfeeding and child nutrition; vaccinations and other health care.

To jump-start the sessions, facilitators “seeded” initial questions on pieces of paper that looked like flowers on a plant. Participants then picked a “question-flower” and asked the question, which the local health-care provider — usually a midwife – answered.

The Smart Women Clubs are raising awareness in male partners and other family members, whose education can be an important factor in a woman’s successful use of contraceptives or other health technologies. As participants formed their own questions and talked about family or life planning, husbands and mothers-in-law began to attend the meetings. Conversations soon turned to how a husband can participate in contraception and support his wife during abortion, pregnancy and birth.

People in other towns heard about the pilot sites and started their own meetings; there are now 20 Smart Women Clubs in the province, with 475 members.

Participants report that these meetings provide them with critical information. A key message of the meetings is that women aren’t being “given” services; they are clients, and the provider is being paid by the woman or the government. Women say that they now feel more comfortable asking questions of their providers, and that the clubs have shown them new ways of thinking and led to improved communication with their families.

The approach seems to be improving health behavior as well. According to Phan Thi Hien, medical assistant from Truong Tho Commune Health Center in An Lao, “Before our club was established, only 20 percent of pregnant women came for prenatal care during their first trimester. Now, this percentage has increased to 80 percent. [In addition,] each year, there were four or five repeat abortion cases at our commune health center, but there were no repeat abortion cases in the last year.”

To build on the Smart Women Clubs’ successes, Ipas staff recently trained 56 club leaders in facilitation skills to transform more club meetings into this winning combination of information and social interaction. The Smart Women Clubs highlight the relationship and importance of community information even when services are available, and the need to have appropriate services available even when a community is well-informed.

For more information, contact:
Kirsten Sherk
Senior Associate, Media Relations
e-mail: sherkk@ipas.org
phone: 919.960.5612
fax: 919.929.0258