Unveiling Midwives' Experiences of Newborn Health in Rural Birth Spaces in Southern Ghana

Abstract

Midwives’ experiences of newborn care in rural communities have been minimally explored over the past two decades globally in spite of their rich experiences as frontline health workers in maternal and newborn health. In Ghana, the slow decline of neonatal mortality is shaped by inequitable health coverage, lapses in health care delivery, weak community engagement strategies and policy implementation challenges. Understanding the dynamic contextual factors that impact rural newborn health care delivery is critical to meeting the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.2 - i.e. reducing neonatal mortality to at least 12 per 1000 live births. The aim of this study was to explore and unveil the experiences of midwives involved with newborn health care in rural birth settings, Southern Ghana. Interpretive phenomenology that incorporates Heideggerian and African philosophy were used to explore the meanings embedded in the experiences of thirteen midwives who volunteered to participate in the study. Emerging themes were synthesized from the verbal transcripts, field notes, reflective journal and commentaries from two independent reviewers to produce rich narratives of the midwives’ embodied experiences. The study findings establish that maternal and neonatal care are delivered in health facilities, domiciliary settings and unpredictable spaces in rural communities where silent suffering occur. The knowledge generated in the study serves as basis for setting newborn health care delivery priorities, scaling up research-informed interventions, and refining policies to improve newborn health care delivery and midwifery practice in rural settings within Ghana.