Background
Newborn health and survival is a major concern in Malawi with over 13,700 newborns deaths in 2015. Progress on newborn health has been slower than progress on health for children under the age of 5 years. Malawi also has the highest rate of preterm birth worldwide, with 18% of live births occurring before 37 completed weeks of pregnancy. The country introduced Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) into facilities nationwide in 1999,butan evaluation in 2012 found that only 36% of facilities were making significant progress in institutionalizing the practice. Improving quality of and access to newborn services will be fundamental in order for Malawi to achieve the new Sustainable Development Goal target of ending preventable newborn deaths by 2030.
In order to promote institutionalization of quality newborn services throughout Malawi, including KMC services, Save the Children’s Saving Newborn Lives (SNL) program has piloted a locally-driven quality improvement (QI) and mentorship model in two district hospitals in Malawi’s Southern Region:Thyolo and Machinga. This brief describes implementation of that process, summarizes lessons learned,and provides a model that could be used for implementation expansion in Malawi and in other contexts and countries.