Improving Intrapartum Care for Saving Life at Birth in Ethiopia Through PartoMa Approach

Overview

Overall Objective To introduce PartoMa approach (locally agreed and achievable intrapartum guidelines and a continual in-house training program) to Ethiopian context through continuous fetal heart rate (FHR) monitoring using MOYO device and co-creation of context specific intrapartum care guideline for improving decision making in intrapartum care in Eastern Ethiopia. Interventions 1. Locally agreed and achievable intrapartum guidelines 2. Low dose high frequency trainings (LDHF) 3. Partograph Overall Design A quasi-experimental pre-post study (PartoMa study) Setting Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Haramaya Hospital and Hiwot Fana University Hospital, Ethiopia. Population Laboring women delivering at the study site from February 2023 to March 2025 and their offspring, as well as health providers. Women and their offspring will be enrolled at/after onset of labour and followed until discharge. Endpoints The primary endpoint is perinatal mortality. For further description and secondary outcomes, please see below. Study Time Data collection from June 2023 to May 2025. Specific Objectives i. To assess FHR monitoring practice and use of obstetric guideline for decision making in Hiwot Fana University Hospital ii. To improve feto-maternal outcome through applying PartoMa approach in Hiwot Fana University Hospital. iii. To determine the feasibility, acceptability and sustainability of low-dose high frequency trainings and PartoMa seminars in Hiwot Fana University Hospital. iv. To document changes in pregnancy outcomes after the introduction of PartoMa approaches-seminars, low dose high frequency trainings, continuous FHR monitoring and tailored interventions-in Hiwot Fana University Hospital. Setting PartoMa Ethiopia will be implemented at Haramaya General Hospital and Hiwot Fana Comprehensive Specialized University Hospital, which are both busy maternity units in Eastern Ethiopia. Both are government hospitals with an annual delivery number of around 5,000.

METHODS The embedded study consists of four phases of activities: I. Baseline assessment, II. Co-creation context specific intrapartum care guideline, III. Implementation of PartoMa seminars, and IV. Post intervention evaluation. Phase I: Baseline Assessment of Current Practice (the first three month) Using a mixed method design, detail baseline quality of care assessment will be conducted which include FHR monitoring practice, criterion-based audit of intrapartum management in cases of still births, compliance with obstetric guidelines and basic maternal and child health indicators, through interview of staff, review of records, and observations. Phase II: Co-creation of PartoMa guidelines to Ethiopia (month 3-6) Input from the baseline assessment, local birth attendants and stakeholders will be used to adapt the PartoMa guidelines from Tanzania to the hospital context. Together with local birth attendants (doctors and midwifes) evidence from inter(national) adapted to locally achievable guidelines. We will integrate PartoMa Ethiopia with MOYO device for monitoring FHR for improving the still births and supporting the decision-making process. The guideline will be peer reviewed by the international PartoMa team, national consultant obstetricians, and senior midwives. Phase III: Introduction of PartoMa Ethiopia in Haramaya Hospital (month 7-18) After completing co-creation of PartoMa Ethiopia guidelines, PartoMa seminars and FHR monitoring will be introduced in Haramaya Hospital. Once PartoMa Ethiopia seminar is introduced, monitoring and evaluation of the process will be conducted. Using the Kirkpatrick's model-which is ideal for evaluating impact of training at different level-will be used for evaluation purpose. Comprehensive data collection, including non-participatory observation of labor ward and interview of birth attendants and the women will be used for data collection (objective II and III). PartoMa seminars will be complemented with real case scenarios obtained from Ethiopian Obstetric Surveillance System (EthOSS) database. Different level of training outcomes will be evaluated following the different level of Following the Kirkpatrick's model, we will evaluate the training outcomes at level one (reaction), level two (learning), level three (behavior), and level four (results). Phase IV: Post implementation evaluation and sustainability (Month 19-24) Following implementation of PartoMa Ethiopia packages with MOYO FHR monitoring for 12 months, final data collection will be done following similar approach: the same measuring tools, data collection technique and outcomes.