“Please Do Not Forget Us” - Views of Women, Nurses, and Traditional Birth Attendants on Community Distribution of Medications to Prevent Postpartum Hemorrhage and Sepsis: A Qualitative Pilot Study in Rural Tanzania
نویسنده
چکیده
Background: Postpartum hemorrhage and sepsis are the most common causes of death for women in childbirth globally. In rural Tanzania where about one woman dies every hour from childbirth, over sixty percent of women deliver outside of health care institutions and therefore lack access to medications to prevent bleeding and infection. In this study, women delivering in rural Rorya District in northern Tanzania were provided with 600 micrograms of misoprostol and 500 mg of erythromycin to take immediately after delivery to prevent postpartum hemorrhage and sepsis. The purpose of the study was to assess the feasibility of distributing these medications. Methods: Selected women, dispensary nurses and traditional birth attendants who were involved in deliveries where the two study medications were taken were interviewed by research assistants in the local language of Kiswahili about their views on community distribution of these two medications. The interviews were taped with digital recorders and the recordings were transcribed and translated into English. The English transcripts were independently coded by two researchers using a qualitative software analysis program, assessing for common and diverging themes between and within the three groups of interviewees. Results: A total of 32 women, 17 dispensary nurses, and 13 traditional birth attendants were interviewed. There was strong support for community distribution of medications to prevent bleeding and infection after delivery amongst the participants. Other common themes from the research included family involvement in the decision of the women to take the medications, safe storage of the medications by the women, and minimal side effects of the medications. A variety of people administered the medications. Several participants observed that provision of the medications by dispensary nurses improved women’s access to the dispensaries. Views differed on whether traditional birth attendants should be permitted to distribute the medications. Conclusions: There is strong support from rural women, dispensary nurses, and traditional birth attendants for a community distribution program of medications to prevent postpartum hemorrhage and sepsis. Future research will focus on the distribution of misoprostol in clean delivery kits directly to rural women by local health providers, as there is insufficient evidence for prevention of sepsis by inclusion of a single dose of antibiotics. *Corresponding author: Dr. Gail Webber, Bruyere Research Institute, Lancaster Medical Clinic, 2450 Lancaster, Rd. Units 11 and 12, Ottawa, ON, Canada K1B 5N3, Tel: +1 613-738-9119; E-mail: [email protected] Received January 14, 2014; Accepted June 18, 2014; Published June 24, 2014 Citation: Webber G, Chirangi B (2014) “Please Do Not Forget Us” Views of Women, Nurses, and Traditional Birth Attendants on Community Distribution of Medications to Prevent Postpartum Hemorrhage and Sepsis: A Qualitative Pilot Study in Rural Tanzania. J Women’s Health Care 3: 168. doi:10.4172/21670420.1000168 Copyright: © 2014 Webber G, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
منابع مشابه
Women's Health in Women's Hands: A Pilot Study Assessing the Feasibility of Providing Women With Medications to Reduce Postpartum Hemorrhage and Sepsis in Rural Tanzania
In rural Africa, deaths from childbirth are common and access to health care facilities with skilled providers is very limited. Leading causes of death for women are bleeding and infection. In this pilot study, we establish the feasibility of distributing oral medications to women in rural Tanzania to self-administer after delivery to reduce bleeding and infection. Of the 642 women provided wit...
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