Investigating Preterm Care at the Facility Level: Stakeholder Qualitative Study in Central and Southern Malawi

Objectives Malawi is estimated to have one of the highest preterm birth rates in the world. However, care of preterm infants at facility level in Malawi has not been explored. We aimed to explore the views of health stakeholders about the care of preterm infants in health facilities and the existence of any policy protocol documents guiding the delivery of care to these infants. Methods We conducted 16 in-depth interviews with health stakeholders (11 service providers and 5 policy makers) using an interview guide and asked for any existing policy protocol documents guiding care for preterm infants in the health facilities in Malawi. The collected documents were reviewed and all the interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed and translated. All data were analysed using content analysis approach. Results We identified four policy protocol documents and out of these, one had detailed information explaining the care of preterm infants. Policy makers reported that policy protocol documents to guide care for preterm infants were available in the health facilities but majority (63.6 %) of the service providers lacked knowledge about the existence of these documents. Health stakeholders reported several challenges in caring for preterm infants including lack of trained staff in preterm infant care, antibiotics, space, supervision and poor referral system. Conclusions Our study highlights that improving health care service provider knowledge of preterm infant care is an integral part in preterm child birth. Our findings suggests that policy makers and health decision makers should retain those trained in preterm new born care in the health facility’s preterm unit.