Assessing the quality of postnatal care offered to mothers and babies by midwives in Lilongwe District

South African Family Practice

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Assessing the quality of postnatal care offered to mothers and babies by midwives in Lilongwe District
 
Creator Pindani, Mercy Phiri, Chrissie Chikazinga, Wanangwa Chilinda, Idesi Botha, Janet Chorwe-Sungani, Genesis
 
Subject primary care; family medicine; midwifery postnatal care; quality; midwives; babies
Description Background: The quality of care received by mothers and newborns in low-resource settings is often poor. This may partly explain the high rates of maternal deaths (60%) that occur during the postpartum period in Malawi. However, the quality of care provided to mothers and newborns in the country has not been adequately assessed. Therefore, this study aimed at assessing the quality of postnatal care services offered to mothers and babies by midwives in Lilongwe District.Methods: This was a quantitative study that used a sample of 58 midwives to assess the quality of postnatal care at three selected health facilities. A structured questionnaire, an observation tool and a facility checklist were used to collect data. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data. The study received ethics approval from the relevant authority.Results: The study found that the percentages reported by midwives regarding client monitoring varied and were below the 80% threshold. Midwives did not always follow the reproductive health standards on client examination so that less than 75% of midwives inspected perineal wounds (52.2%), checked vital signs of neonate (66.7%) and mother (62.2%), and inspected lochia drainage (30.4%). Most midwives (91.3%) never assessed the emotional state of the mother. Midwives covered a range of topics during health education and counselling. However, some topics, including immunisations (31.1%), were never taught.Conclusion: The study has suggested that the postnatal care offered by midwives at three health facilities was generally substandard and midwives do not always monitor, assess and counsel postnatal clients.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor NORHED
Date 2020-07-23
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion Peer-reviewed Article survey; qualitative research
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/safp.v62i1.5026
 
Source South African Family Practice; Vol 62, No 1 (2020): Part 3; 6 pages 2078-6204 2078-6190
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://safpj.co.za/index.php/safpj/article/view/5026/6238 https://safpj.co.za/index.php/safpj/article/view/5026/6237 https://safpj.co.za/index.php/safpj/article/view/5026/6239 https://safpj.co.za/index.php/safpj/article/view/5026/6236
 
Coverage Africa 2015-2017 —
Rights Copyright (c) 2020 Mercy Pindani, Chrissie Phiri, Wanangwa Chikazinga, Idesi Chilinda, Janet Botha, Genesis Chorwe-Sungani https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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