Helping small babies survive: an evaluation of facility-based Kangaroo Mother Care implementation progress in Uganda
Patrick Aliganyira1, Kate Kerber2, Karen Davy3
1Saving Newborn Lives programme, Save the Children, Kampala, Uganda and Washington DC, USA.
Introduction:
Prematurity is the leading cause of newborn death in Uganda, accounting for 38% of the nation's 39,000 annual newborn deaths. Kangaroo mother care is a high-impact; cost-effective intervention that has been prioritized in policy in Uganda but implementation has been limited.
Methods:
A standardised, cross-sectional, mixed-method evaluation design was used, employing semi-structured key-informant interviews and observations in 11 health care facilities implementing kangaroo mother care in Uganda.
Results:
The facilities visited scored between 8.28 and 21.72 out of the possible 30 points with a median score of 14.71. Two of the 3 highest scoring hospitals were private, not-for-profit hospitals whereas the second highest scoring hospital was a central teaching hospital. Facilities with KMC services are not equally distributed throughout the country. Only 4 regions (Central 1, Central 2, East-Central and Southwest) plus the City of Kampala were identified as having facilities providing KMC services.
Conclusion:
KMC services are not instituted with consistent levels of quality and are often dependent on private partner support. With increasing attention globally and in country, Uganda is in a unique position to accelerate access to and quality of health services for small babies across the country.
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