Dr. Daniel Federman, the Dean for Medical Education at Harvard Medical School, spoke about a women's reproductive health clinic he founded two years ago in Armenia and its potential as a model for other less developed countries.
About 25 people attended Federman's lecture yesterday afternoon in 3 Rockefeller Center.
Federman helped to initiate the Women's Reproductive Center in Yerivan, Armenia in July 1992, in response to the severe lack of reproductive information and technology in Armenia after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The clinic is regarded by experts in international affairs and health care as a model for efficient women's health care in developing countries.
Federman said although Armenia is not typically considered a developing country, the problems in health care that afflict Third World nations are prevalent in Armenia.
"The effects of regional wars, runaway inflation, energy shortage and the earthquake combined to make the worst circumstances for women in terms of reproductive issues," Federman said.
The situation in Armenia before the clinic opened was bleak, Federman said. There were no condoms or other contraceptives available for women and there was a large number of incidents of sexually transmitted diseases besides AIDS.
Federman said the main form of birth control was abortion and many women averaged between 15 and 20 abortions in their lifetimes.
Federman and other medical experts in his office decided to begin a clinic specifically devoted to improving the reproductive health of women in the Armenian region after the Armenian earthquake.
He said the clinic's goal was to increase the birth rate but to give women more control over when they wanted to have children.
"The clinic was interested in the absolute basics and essentials, not on providing modern technology. The country is too economically and medically marginal," Federman said. "The equipment in use there is nearly 60 years too primitive by American standards."
A team of obstetricians and gynecologists from the Beth Israel Hospital and Harvard Medical School travels to Armenia three times a year for two or three weeks to bring new equipment and to train a staff of 10 Armenian women in the basics of physical examinations and the use of the equipment.
Federman has only been to Armenia once. He said since he is not a gynecologist or an obstetrician he can not help train people, but he did use his expertise in endocrinology to help solve problems stemming from iodine deficiency in the diets of Armenians.
The clinic introduced better record-keeping techniques, personal and intimate care, modern medication and improved staff training to the Armenian health care system.
The clinic can only treat 1,400 women per month for miscarriages, infertility and other reproductive diseases and is almost completely occupied. It is adding an early childhood program to focus more on postnatal treatment and is looking to expand into the nearby hospitals, but needs more funds and support to do so, Federman said.
"It's exciting to see that, despite the political situation in this growing nation, a clinic with a focus on the care of women was able to develop." Federman said. "Usually the priorities of the government in these countries center on strengthening the military and men's issues."
In terms of cultural barriers, Federman said that there is no feeling of colonialism, but there is still some discomfort with women having more control of reproduction in such a male-dominated society.
Federman said he hopes more clinics with emphasis on women's reproductive health will open in other developing nations concerned with population control and infertility problems.
"The project is a great because it shows there can be more cultural understanding through the sharing of medical education with a place closed to much of the world," Jen Main '95 said.
