Nkurunziza aims to create training module to support access to perinatal services for adolescent mothers in Rwanda
Aimable Nkurunziza is a recipient of the University of Toronto’s 2023 Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship, an annual program that provides funding to support the hiring of post-doctoral fellows from underrepresented groups. He is working under the supervision of Bloomberg Nursing Professor Cindy-Lee Dennis, a prominent researcher in the field of maternal mental health.
Nkurunziza aims to create a training intervention for nurses and midwives in Rwanda, that will improve health outcomes and reduce barriers to care access for young adolescent women in primary care settings. He has seen first-hand the unique challenges faced by young adolescent women in Rwanda who require appropriate reproductive and perinatal health care.
Healthy mothers are better equipped to raise healthy children, which in turn creates a healthy society.”
As a former assistant lecturer at the University of Rwanda and the Rwandan lead of the Center of International Reproductive Health Training (CIRHT), Nkurunziza is tasked with integrating family planning and comprehensive abortion care in nursing and midwifery curricula.
Together, he and Professor Dennis will evaluate and develop training modules that will be accessible not only to medical care providers, but also community health workers, who are often the ones connecting young pregnant women with health care services.
“These individuals are not formally educated, but they are trusted by members of the community,” says Nkurunziza. “They play a big role in identifying pregnant women and linking them with health care facilities to ensure they receive appropriate care including immunizations and follow-up antenatal care.”
As part of his post-doctoral work, Nkurunziza’s intervention and training module will utilize activity tested by EQUIP for Health Equity in Canada, a collaboration with the University of British Columbia and Western University that includes curriculum geared towards training nurses and health care providers about how to provide trauma- and violence-informed care.
During his PhD at Western University, Nkurunziza explored how perinatal services in primary healthcare settings in Rwanda supported adolescent mothers to inform the delivery of trauma- and violence-informed care. He also examined the antenatal care (ANC) and Prevent To Mother Child Transmission (PMTCT) guidelines and policies used in primary healthcare settings in Rwanda to understand the extent to which they were trauma- and violence-informed.
What he uncovered, was that although some adolescent women might have an initial positive experience with the primary care they receive, many of the policies and practices in place retraumatize them or create barriers to future care access.
He points specifically to a policy around HIV testing, that is offered to all new mothers as well as their partners and husbands. For adolescent mothers who come alone to the clinic, they are offered these services only after they provide an explanation or copy of permission from their local leaders, which further delays their care, and access to appropriate care services.
Nkurunziza is hopeful that his research will not only improve the lives of young women in Rwanda, but also inspire a new generation of researchers who wish to support women’s health.
“Healthy mothers are better equipped to raise healthy children, which in turn creates a healthy society. It is also why I am passionate about conducting research that improves health outcomes for women, children and families, particularly from a social justice and health equity lens,” says Nkurunziza.