Post-Abortion Care (PAC)

Center faculty directed a training program to establish a Post Abortion Care (PAC) unit in a teaching hospital in Eastern El Salvador to improve access to quality care for women who have complications related to incomplete or unsafe abortion. The project has trained a core group of hospital staff and physicians in a variety of family planning services, including manual vacuum aspiration (MVA) and PAC. The training is being integrated into the regular curriculum for residents and doctors in Eastern El Salvador, insuring the sustainability of the PAC unit and its life-saving services. Additionally, there is currently a cost study underway to compare MVA and D & C (dilation and curettage) for treatment of incomplete abortion, as well as for endometrial biopsy in patients with uterine bleeding. Center faculty have also provided in-country, hands-on training in the use of MVA and PAC to fellows from the Center’s International Family Planning Leadership Program (IFPLP) in Central America and Southern Mexico. Multidisciplinary teams of physicians, nurses, midwives and social workers from public hospitals health centers are being trained in small groups, and given a initial supply of MVA equipment.  Finally, fellows attending the IFPLP English program from all 7 participating countries (Nigeria, Sudan, Philippines, Pakistan, India, Ethiopia, and Myanmar) receive didactic training in MVA use for post-abortion care as do fellows from a program specifically for students from Vietnam.