BAGHDAD (Army News Service, Oct. 23, 2003) -- Thirty-two physicians from across Baghdad are being taught Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics by 1st Armored Division doctors.

“We have been very delayed during the last 13 years after the Gulf War in the latest medical treatment procedures,” said Shahwani. “We need to be in touch with new advances in obstetrics and gynecology.”

With hands-on training and the latest information, the nearly all-female course participants will soon be able to teach fellow physicians, residents and midwives procedures that could curb the number of deaths attributed to bleeding during pregnancy and delivery, said. Lt. Col. Mark Harris, 1st Armored Division’s deputy division surgeon.

The course is taught in 18 countries and is the preferred method of teaching obstetrics for Harris, and the course is one of the common teaching methods in America. Bringing it to Iraq for the first time is monumental for Harris and his staff.

“It’s a very good and solid way of doing things,” he said.

Using the “evidence-based” medicine method for teaching the Iraqi people, ensures that not only the instruction methods and practices are proven, but helps the Iraqi doctors understand the importance of participating in the world medicine community, said Capt. Lisa Foglia, a provost OB/GYN doctor assigned to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany.

“Hopefully, they will teach these proven methods to other doctors and residents,” she said. “It’s not based on one person’s personal experience or practice, but rather a worldwide group consensus.”

Harris and the American medical instructors said bringing this course and others in the near future could only help bring better health care to the Iraqi people.

“According to the Iraqi doctors I have spoken with, Saddam neglected the women’s health care terribly,” he said. “It’s something that resulted in higher numbers of mothers and babies dying in the time during pregnancy or right afterwards. So there is a tremendous need for this type of education here.”

Harris said the physicians in Iraq are very gracious people and are very well educated. “In most cases, what they don’t have is the equipment, supplies and communications in order to practice American-style medicine.”

Harris hopes this course helps bridge gaps of friendship, knowledge and experiences between the two countries.

With only 10 to 15 family practitioners in a city of more than five million, being able to train the qualified doctors to train other medical staff will help put a small dent in the larger problem of the neglected health care system, said Harris.

“We are doing what we can to help decrease the maternal mortality rate here,” said Capt. Rob Price, a family physician assigned to the 5th Special Forces Group, from Fort Campbell, Ky. “We want to give them the ability to take care of their own people and to stress the importance of family practice and continuity.”

The Baghdad region will graduate several dozen physicians trained in the latest pregnancy and birthing techniques.

“This has been very rewarding, and the best thing I have done since I have been deployed here,” said Foglia. “It’s a great feeling to open dialog between fellow medical physicians. I would have never thought in a million years I would be doing something like this.”

Both Shahwani and Harris said Baghdad has a high rate of births per mother, an average of five. Harris said although the Iraqi physicians are highly trained and educated, bringing the course to them could help decrease both the mother and child mortality rates.

“We are giving them a tool they can use to teach their residents, students, midwives and non-specialists, who don’t deliver babies, the best ways to handle emergencies in obstetrics during delivery,” said Harris.

Harris said most women who have been pregnant before have some sort of bleeding in their first trimester. “Bleeding in the first trimester of pregnancy is frightening and has dangers of losing the baby,” he warned. “There are some causes for bleeding, some of which are very dangerous. We are teaching them how to manage that bleeding safely.”

Harris said other complications during pregnancy, such as seizures, the inability to deliver a baby vaginally, or when the baby has trouble in the uterus, are also life-threatening situations the team of doctors are teaching the Iraqi physicians to handle.

Because of the high rate of deaths associated with bleeding, Shahwani said being a physician trained on latest techniques allows her to do her most important job helping give the greatest gift of life.

Shahwani comes from a large family of doctors who currently practice in both America and Canada. “I am very proud that I am a doctor and especially an obstetrician,” she said with a smile.

(Editor’s note: By Sgt. Mark Bell is a journalist with the 372nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment in Iraq.)