Perceptions of traditional birth attendants and midwives related to neonatal airway management in rural Uganda: a focused ethnographic qualitative study

Background The neonatal mortality rate in rural Uganda is 38/1000 births as compared to 6/1,000 in the United States. Hypoxic events, also referred to as birth asphyxia, represent 24% of neonatal deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa. Nearly 60% of birth asphyxia worldwide occurs in home-based deliveries with informally trained birth attendants. The World Health Organization has defined two categories of birth attendants in low- and middle-income...