Preterm Resources, Education, and Effective Management for Infants

The purpose of this Quality Improvement initiative is to reduce severe morbidity and mortality among premature infants through proven and cost-effective clinical management during the antenatal, intrapartum, and postpartum periods. In order to reduce neonatal mortality and morbidity due to preterm birth complications, health facilities must be able to identify and manage women in preterm labor, accurately administer medications, and provide high-quality postnatal care.

The study will provide evidence of implementing a package of clinical interventions coupled with quality improvement and monitoring strategy aimed at reducing neonatal mortality in 3 resource-limited health facilities, leveraging on an existing strengthened birth registry to provide neonatal outcomes up to 28 days after delivery. Additionally, using a multifaceted approach through an interdisciplinary team, the investigators will identify the social and cultural barriers that contribute to home-based deliveries. These findings will be helpful to the Ministry of Health in shaping future policies regarding the scale-up of newborn care clinical protocols as part of Government's efforts to reducing neonatal mortality in Zambia.