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Parents, healthcare professionals and other stakeholders’ experiences of caring for babies born too soon in a low resource setting: A qualitative study of essential newborn care for preterm infants in Kenya

Mitchell, Eleanor J; Pallotti, Phoebe; Qureshi, Zahida; Daniels, Jane P; Oliver, Mary; Were, Fredrick; Osoti, Alfred; Gwako, George; Kimani, Violet; Opira, Jacqueline; Ojha, Shalini

Parents, healthcare professionals and other stakeholders’ experiences of caring for babies born too soon in a low resource setting: A qualitative study of essential newborn care for preterm infants in Kenya Thumbnail


Authors

Phoebe Pallotti

Zahida Qureshi

MARY OLIVER Mary.Oliver@nottingham.ac.uk
Professor of Science Education

Fredrick Were

Alfred Osoti

George Gwako

Violet Kimani

Jacqueline Opira

SHALINI OJHA Shalini.Ojha@nottingham.ac.uk
Professor of Neonatal Medicine



Abstract

Objectives: Prematurity is the leading cause of global neonatal and infant mortality. Many babies could survive by the provision of essential newborn care. This qualitative study was conducted in order to understand, from a family and professional perspective, the barriers and facilitators to essential newborn care. The study will inform the development of an early warning score for preterm and LBW infants in low and middle income countries (LMICs).

Setting: Single-centre, tertiary referral hospital in Nairobi, Kenya.

Participants: Nineteen mothers and family members participated in focus group discussions and twenty key-informant interviews with professionals (healthcare professionals and policy-makers) were conducted. Focus group participants were identified via postnatal wards, the Newborn Unit and Kangaroo Mother Care Unit. Convenience and purposive sampling was used to identify professionals.

Outcome measures: Understanding facilitators and barriers to provision of essential newborn care in preterm infants.

Results: From 27 themes, three global themes emerged from the data; mothers’ physical and psychological needs, system pillars and kangaroo mother care.

Conclusion: Meeting mothers’ needs in the care of their babies is important to mothers, family members and professionals, and deserves greater attention. Functioning system pillars depended on a standardised approach to care and low cost, universally applicable interventions are needed to support the existing care structure. Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) was effective in both meeting mothers’ needs, supporting existing care structures and also provided a space for the resolution of the dialectical relationship between families and hospital procedures. Lessons learnt from the implementation of KMC could be applied to the development of an early warning score in LMICs.

Citation

Mitchell, E. J., Pallotti, P., Qureshi, Z., Daniels, J. P., Oliver, M., Were, F., …Ojha, S. (2021). Parents, healthcare professionals and other stakeholders’ experiences of caring for babies born too soon in a low resource setting: A qualitative study of essential newborn care for preterm infants in Kenya. BMJ Open, 11(6), Article e043802. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043802

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date May 5, 2021
Online Publication Date Jun 23, 2021
Publication Date 2021-06
Deposit Date May 6, 2021
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal BMJ Open
Electronic ISSN 2044-6055
Publisher BMJ
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 11
Issue 6
Article Number e043802
DOI https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043802
Keywords General Medicine
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/5512182
Publisher URL https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/11/6/e043802