Dataset Information

Monitoring the implementation and scale-up of a life-saving intervention for preterm and small babies: Facility-based Kangaroo Mother Care.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Kangaroo mother care (KMC) is an evidence-based intervention with large protective effects on neonatal mortality and morbidity, especially among small babies. Despite the available evidence, KMC adoption, implementation and scale-up has lagged. The purpose of this paper is to inform current and future KMC implementation by identifying achievements and challenges in countries that are in the process of scaling up KMC.

Methods

We collected and analyzed information to track the status of facility-based KMC in countries identified by the KMC Acceleration Partnership. We assessed the status of the scale-up in six priority countries (Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria and Rwanda in Africa, and Bangladesh and India in Asia) for three periods: 2014 and prior, 2015-2017 and 2017-2019 across six strategic areas: national policy, country implementation, research, knowledge management, monitoring and evaluation and advocacy. We collected information through in-depth interviews with key participants, quantitative data extraction from the Demographic Health Survey and secondary data extraction from policies, briefs, program reports and other documents.

Results

Progress in terms of national policy and advocacy appeared to occur quite quickly and evenly across the six priority countries, despite being at different stages during the first assessment. In the areas of country implementation support and research, progress occurred more slowly and results were more variable across countries. It was noted that the number of health facilities offering KMC services increased in all six priority countries, but coverage of KMC was difficult to estimate, demonstrating the ongoing challenges in the area of monitoring and evaluation despite progress made in integrating KMC indicators into national health information systems in five countries. Among the six priority countries - Malawi and Bangladesh had fully achieved at least four the first time six conditions were introduced.

Conclusions

We documented notable achievements in the dimensions of policy and country implementation across the six countries, which were likely driven by government engagement to prioritize newborn care services and the promotion of KMC as a core intervention for small babies. We noted challenges in critical areas such as ambulatory KMC, follow-up, and monitoring and evaluation. Addressing these gaps while securing funding to allocate human resources adequately, promoting acceptance of KMC for demand creation and facilitating the use of data for decision making will be vital to ensure effective coverage at scale.

SUBMITTER: Torres LM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8325930 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:IntroductionKangaroo Mother Care (KMC) is the practice of early, continuous and prolonged skin-to-skin contact between the mother and the baby with exclusive breastfeeding. Despite clear evidence of impact in improving survival and health outcomes among low birth weight infants, KMC coverage has remained low and implementation has been limited. Consequently, only a small fraction of newborns that could benefit from KMC receive it.Methods and analysisThis implementation research project aims to develop and evaluate district-level models for scaling up KMC in India and Ethiopia that can achieve high population coverage. The project includes formative research to identify barriers and contextual factors that affect implementation and utilisation of KMC and design scalable models to deliver KMC across the facility-community continuum. This will be followed by implementation and evaluation of these models in routine care settings, in an iterative fashion, with the aim of reaching a successful model for wider district, state and national-level scale-up. Implementation actions would happen at three levels: 'pre-KMC facility'-to maximise the number of newborns getting to a facility that provides KMC; 'KMC facility'-for initiation and maintenance of KMC; and 'post-KMC facility'-for continuation of KMC at home. Stable infants with birth weight<2000 g and born in the catchment population of the study KMC facilities would form the eligible population. The primary outcome will be coverage of KMC in the preceding 24 hours and will be measured at discharge from the KMC facility and 7 days after hospital discharge.Ethics and disseminationEthics approval was obtained in all the project sites, and centrally by the Research Ethics Review Committee at the WHO. Results of the project will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal for publication, in addition to national and global level dissemination.Study statusWHO approved protocol: V.4-12 May 2016-Protocol ID: ERC 2716. Study implementation beginning: April 2017. Study end: expected March 2019.Trial registration numberCommunity Empowerment Laboratory, Uttar Pradesh, India (ISRCTN12286667); St John's National Academy of Health Sciences, Bangalore, India and Karnataka Health Promotion Trust, Bangalore, India (CTRI/2017/07/008988); Society for Applied Studies, Delhi (NCT03098069); Oromia, Ethiopia (NCT03419416); Amhara, SNNPR and Tigray, Ethiopia (NCT03506698).

Project description:BackgroundHospital-based kangaroo mother care can help reduce preventable newborn deaths and has been recommended by the World Health Organization in the care of low birthweight babies weighing 2000 g or less. However, implementation has been limited. The objective of this review is to understand the barriers and facilitators of kangaroo mother care implementation in health facilities in sub-Saharan Africa, where there are the highest rates of neonatal mortality in the world.MethodsA systematic search was performed on MEDLINE, Web of Science, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health, African Journals Online, African Index Medicus as well as the references of relevant articles. Inclusion criteria included primary research, facility-based kangaroo mother care in sub-Saharan Africa. Studies were assessed by the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme Qualitative Checklist and the National Institutes of Health quality assessment tools and underwent narrative synthesis.ResultsThirty studies were included in the review. This review examined barriers and facilitators to kangaroo mother care practice at health systems level, health worker experiences and perspectives of mothers and their families. Strong local leadership was essential to overcome barriers of inadequate space, limited budget for supplies, inadequate staffing, lack of guidelines and policies and insufficient supportive supervision. Workload burdens, knowledge gaps and staff attitudes were highlighted as challenges at health workers' level, which could be supported by sharing of best practices and success stories. Support for mothers and their families was also identified as a gap.ConclusionBuilding momentum for kangaroo mother care in health facilities in sub-Saharan Africa continues to be a challenge. Strengthening health systems and communication, prioritizing preterm infant care in public health strategies and supporting health workers and mothers and their families as partners in care are important to scale up. This will support sustainable kangaroo mother care implementation as well as strengthen quality of newborn care overall. PROSPERO registration: CRD42020166742.

Project description:BackgroundKangaroo Mother Care (KMC) is a high impact, low technology and cost-effective intervention for the care of preterm and low birth weight newborn. Cote d'Ivoire adopted the intervention and opened the first KMC unit in 2019. This study aimed to assess barriers and facilitators of KMC implementation in Cote d'Ivoire, a year after its introduction, as well as proposed solutions for improving KMC implementation in the country.MethodThis was a qualitative study, using semi-structured interviews, carried out in September 2020 in the first KMC unit opened at the Teaching Hospital of Treichville. The study involved healthcare providers providing KMC and mothers of newborn who were receiving or received KMC at the unit. A thematic analysis was performed using both inductive and deductive (Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research-driven) approaches. NVivo 12 was used to assist with coding.ResultsA total of 44 semi-structured interviews were conducted, 12 with healthcare providers and 32 with mothers. The barriers identified were lack of supplies, insufficiency of human resources, lack of space for admission, lack of home visits, lack of food for mothers, lack of collaboration between health services involved in newborn care, increased workload, the beliefs of carrying the baby on the chest, father's resistance, low rate of exclusive breastfeeding, lack of community awareness. Facilitators identified were training of healthcare providers, strong leadership, the low cost of KMC, healthcare providers' perceived value of KMC, mothers-healthcare providers' relationship, mothers' adherence to KMC and the capacity of the KMC unit to network with external organizations. The proposed solutions for improving KMC implementation were volunteer staff motivation, intensifying education and counselling of mothers and families, the recruitment of a psychologist and the involvement of all stakeholders.ConclusionOur study highlighted the challenges to implement KMC in Cote d'Ivoire with unique and specific barriers to implementation. We recommend to researchers and decision makers to respectively design strategies and adopt intervention that specifically address these barriers and facilitators to a better uptake of KMC. Decision makers should also take into account the proposed solutions for a better implementation and scaling up of KMC.

Project description:Despite introduction of Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) in Malawi over a decade ago, preterm birth remains the leading cause of neonatal mortality. Although KMC is initiated in the health care facility, robust community follow-up is critical for survival and optimal development of preterm and low birth weight infants post-discharge. The objective of this qualitative study was to gain insight into community and health worker understanding, attitudes, beliefs and practices around preterm and low birth weight babies and KMC in Malawi.A total of 152 participants were interviewed in two districts in southern Malawi, Machinga and Thyolo, in April 2015. Focus group discussions (groups = 11, n = 132) were conducted with pregnant women, community members and women who have practiced KMC. In-depth interviews (n = 20) were conducted with fathers who have practiced KMC, community and religious leaders, and health workers. Purposive and snowball sampling were employed to identify participants. Thematic content analysis was conducted.KMC mothers and fathers only learned about KMC and care for preterm newborns after delivery of a child in need of this care. Men typically were not included in KMC counseling due to societal gender roles. Health facilities were the main source of information on KMC, however informal networks among women provided some degree of knowledge exchange. Community leaders were regarded as major facilitators of health information, conveners, key influencers, and policy-makers. Religious leaders were regarded as advocates and emotional support for families with preterm infants. Finally, while many participants initially had negative feelings towards preterm births and KMC, the large majority saw a shift in their perceptions through health counseling, peer modeling, and personal success with KMC.The findings offer several opportunities to improve KMC implementation including 1) earlier introduction of KMC to pregnant women and their families that are at-risk for preterm birth, 2) greater involvement of men in KMC counselling, practice and care for preterm infants, and 3) strengthening and defining partnerships with community and religious leaders. Finally, as parental perceptions of preterm infants and KMC improved with successful KMC practice, it is hopeful that KMC itself can positively affect social norms surrounding preterm infants, leading to a virtuous cycle of improved perceptions of preterm infants and increased uptake of KMC.

Project description:BackgroundAs efforts to scale up the delivery of Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) in facilities are increasing, a standardized approach to measure implementation and progress towards effective coverage is needed. Here, we describe a consensus-based approach to develop a measurement framework and identify a core set of indicators for monitoring facility-based KMC that would be feasible to measure within existing systems.MethodsThe KMC measurement framework and core list of indicators were developed through: 1) scoping exercise to identify potential indicators through literature review and requests from researchers and program implementers; and 2) face-to-face consultations with KMC and measurement experts working at country and global levels to review candidate indicators and finalize selection and definitions.ResultsThe KMC measurement framework includes two main components: 1) service readiness, based on the WHO building blocks framework; and 2) service delivery action sequence covering identification, service initiation, continuation to discharge, and follow-up to graduation. Consensus was reached on 10 core indicators for KMC, which were organized according to the measurement framework. We identified 4 service readiness indicators, capturing national level policy for KMC, availability of KMC indicators in HMIS, costed operational plans for KMC and availability of KMC services at health facilities with inpatient maternity services. Six indicators were defined for service delivery, including weighing of babies at birth, identification of those ≤2000 g, initiation of facility-based KMC, monitoring the quality of KMC, status of babies at discharge from the facility and levels of follow-up (according to country-specific protocol).ConclusionsThese core KMC indicators, identified with input from a wide range of global and country-level KMC and measurement experts, can aid efforts to strengthen monitoring systems and facilitate global tracking of KMC implementation. As data collection systems advance, we encourage program managers and evaluators to document their experiences using this framework to measure progress and allow indicator refinement, with the overall aim of working towards sustainable, country-led data systems.