Availability of comprehensive emergency obstetric and neonatal care in developing regions in Ethiopia: lessons learned from the USAID transform health activity.

BACKGROUND: In collaboration with its partners, the Ethiopian government has been implementing standard Emergency Obstetric and Neonatal Care Services (CEmONC) since 2010. However, limited studies documented the lessons learned from such programs on the availability of CEmONC signal functions. This study investigated the availability of CEmONC signal functions and described lessons learned from Transform Health support in Developing Regional State in Ethiopia. METHOD: At baseline, we conducted a cross-sectional study covering 15 public hospitals in four developing regions of Ethiopia (Somali, Afar, Beneshangul Gumz, and Gambella). Then, clinical mentorship was introduced in ten selected hospitals. This was followed by reviewing the clinical mentorship program report implemented in all regions. We used the tool adapted from an Averting Maternal Death and Disability tools to collect data through face-to-face interviews. We also reviewed maternal and neonatal records. We then descriptively analyzed the data and presented the findings using text, tables, and graphs. RESULT: At baseline, six out of the 15 hospitals performed all the nine CEmONC signal functions, and one-third of the signal functions were performed in all hospitals. Cesarean Section service was available in eleven hospitals, while blood transfusion was available in ten hospitals. The least performed signal functions were blood transfusion, Cesarean Section, manual removal of placenta, removal of retained product of conceptus, and parenteral anticonvulsants. After implementing the clinical mentorship program, all CEmONC signal functions were available in all hospitals selected for the mentorship program except for Abala Hospital; the number of Cesarean Sections increased by 7.25% at the last quarter of 2021compared to the third quarter of 20,219; and the number of women referred for blood transfusions and further management of obstetric complications decreased by 96.67% at the last quarter of 2021 compared to the third quarter of 20,219. However, the number of women with post-cesarean Section surgical site infection, obstetric complications, facility maternal deaths, neonatal deaths, and stillbirths have not been changed. CONCLUSION: The availability of CEmONC signal functions in the supported hospitals did not change the occurrence of maternal death and stillbirth. This indicates the need for investigating underlying and proximal factors that contributed to maternal death and stillbirth in the Developing Regional State of Ethiopia. In addition, there is also the need to assess the quality of the CEmONC services in the supported hospitals, institutionalize reviews, surveillance, and response mechanism for maternal and perinatal or neonatal deaths and near misses.

Poor Adherence to the Integrated Community Case Management of Newborn and Child Illness Protocol in Rural Ethiopia.

Ethiopia has adopted the Integrated Community Case Management of Newborn and Child Illness (iCMNCI) strategy to expand access to neonatal and child health services. This study assessed compliance with the iCMNCI case management protocol at the primary care settings. A descriptive cross-sectional assessment was conducted in eight districts of Benishangul-Gumuz Region from April to December 2019, and 1,217 sick children aged 2 to 59 months and 43 sick young infants aged 0 to 2 months who sought clinical consultation at the 236 health posts were selected purposively. Trained supervisors reviewed the medical records of two most recent cases from each illness category to quantify the extent to which health workers correctly assessed, classified, treated, and followed up cases per the iCMNCI guidelines. A total of 32,981 children sought clinical consultation of whom 31,830 (96.5%) were aged 2 to 59 months, and 1,151 (3.5%) were young infants aged 0 to 2 months. Of the 1,217 selected children, 426 (35%) had pneumonia, 287 (23.6%) malaria, 501 (41.2%) diarrhea, and 3 (0.2%) had malnutrition. Nearly two-thirds 306 (72%) of pneumonia cases were correctly classified as having had the disease and 297 (70%) were correctly treated for pneumonia; 213 (74%) were correctly classified as having had malaria and 210 (73%) were correctly treated for malaria; and 393 (78%) were correctly classified as having had diarrhea and 297 (59%) were correctly treated for diarrhea. Generally, the current practices of child illness assessment, classification, and treatment have deviated from iCMNCI guidelines. Future interventions should support frontline health workers to comply strictly with case management protocols through training, mentorship, and supervision.

Developing a community driven sustainable model of maternity waiting homes for rural Zambia.

BACKGROUND: maternity waiting homes (MWHs) are residential dwellings located near health facilities where women in the late stages of pregnancy stay to await childbirth and receive immediate postpartum services. These shelters help overcome distance and transportation barriers that prevent women from receiving timely skilled obstetric care. OBJECTIVE: the purpose of this study was to explore Zambian stakeholders' beliefs regarding the acceptability, feasibility, and sustainability of maternity waiting homes (MWHs) to inform a model for rural Zambia. DESIGN: a qualitative design using a semi-structured interview guide for data collection was used. SETTING: two rural districts in the Eastern province of Zambia. PARTICIPANTS: individual interviews were conducted with community leaders (n=46). Focus groups were held with Safe Motherhood Action Groups, husbands, and women of childbearing age in two rural districts in Zambia (n=500). MEASURES: latent content analysis was used to analyze the data. FINDINGS: participants were overwhelmingly in support of MWHs as a way to improve access to facility-based childbirth and address the barrier of distance. Data suggest that participants can describe features of high quality care, and the type of care they expect from a MWH. Stakeholders acknowledged the need to contribute to the maintenance of the MWH, and that community involvement was crucial to MWH sustainability. KEY CONCLUSIONS: access to facility childbirth remains particularly challenging in rural Zambia and delays in seeking care exist. Maternity waiting homes offer a feasible and acceptable intervention to reduce delays in seeking care, thereby holding the potential to improve maternal outcomes. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: this study joins a growing literature on the acceptability, feasibility, and sustainability of MWHs. It is believed that MWHs, by addressing the distance and transportation barriers, will increase the use of skilled birth attendants, thereby reducing maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality in rural, low resource areas of Zambia. We recommend that any initiative, such as MWHs, seeking to increase facility-based births with a skilled birth attendant also concurrently addresses any local deficiencies in quality of care.