abstract: 'Objective: To identify barriers and enablers to conducting safe

  uninterrupted skin-to-skin contact (SSC) in the first hour after birth

  in a low-resource setting and to evaluate how health care professionals

  coped with the identified barriers after completion of an intervention

  package.

  Design and setting: A qualitative method using focus-group and

  individual interviews with health professionals at a governmental

  hospital in Uganda.

  Participants: 81 health professionals.

  Interventions: A 6-step intervention package including, amongst other

  things, showing a DVD on safe uninterrupted SSC following birth and

  discussing with the professionals what barriers and possibilities there

  were to changing practice to allow SSC for one hour.

  Measurements and findings: The thematic analysis of the intervention

  interviews yielded the following themes: Perceived barriers including

  medical events, psychosocial issues and standard midwifery practice;

  Pragmatic barriers including economic constraints in the hospital and

  community; Anticipated barriers by staff and families; Enabling events

  including staff involvement.

  Most of the barriers involving expenses were not solved. When the mother

  and infant had to move to the postnatal ward within one hour after

  birth, there were difficulties in keeping SSC during the transportation,

  but this obstacle was partly solved. A few mothers (i.e. depressed

  and/or adolescent) were considered to be unwilling to keep the infant

  skin-to-skin; this difficulty was not solved. Practising SSC led the

  participants to find advantages such as reduced work load and positive

  effects on pain during suturing.

  Conclusions: SSC following birth was shown to be applicable and accepted

  by the health professionals. The involvement of professionals had

  clinical implications, such as initiatives to broadcast the message of

  SSC by radio to the community and introduce SSC to women having a

  Caesarean section. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.'
affiliation: 'Hjelmstedt, A (Corresponding Author), Karolinska Inst, Dept Womens \&
  Childrens Hlth, Stockholm, Sweden.

  Mbalinda, Scovia, Makerere Univ, Dept Nursing, Coll Hlth Sci, Kampala, Uganda.

  Hjelmstedt, Anna; Nissen, Eva; Svensson, Kristin, Karolinska Inst, Dept Womens \&
  Childrens Hlth, Stockholm, Sweden.

  Odongkara, Beatrice Mpora, Gulu Univ, Gulu Reg Referral \& Teaching Hosp, Dept Paediat
  \& Child Hlth, Gulu, Uganda.

  Waiswa, Peter, Karolinska Inst, Hlth Syst Policy, Dept Publ Hlth Sci, Stockholm,
  Sweden.

  Waiswa, Peter, Makerere Univ, Coll Hlth Sci, Sch Publ Hlth, Maternal Newborn \&
  Child Hlth Ctr Excellence, Kampala, Uganda.

  Svensson, Kristin, Karolinska Univ Hosp, Solna, Sweden.'
author: Mbalinda, Scovia and Hjelmstedt, Anna and Nissen, Eva and Odongkara, Beatrice
  Mpora and Waiswa, Peter and Svensson, Kristin
author-email: anna.hjelmstedt@ki.se
author_list:
- family: Mbalinda
  given: Scovia
- family: Hjelmstedt
  given: Anna
- family: Nissen
  given: Eva
- family: Odongkara
  given: Beatrice Mpora
- family: Waiswa
  given: Peter
- family: Svensson
  given: Kristin
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1016/j.midw.2018.09.009
eissn: 1532-3099
files: []
issn: 0266-6138
journal: MIDWIFERY
keywords: 'Skin-to-skin contact; Health professionals; Implementation; Focus-group

  interview; Low-income setting'
keywords-plus: MOTHER-INFANT INTERACTION; BREAST; CARE
language: English
month: DEC
number-of-cited-references: '34'
orcid-numbers: 'N Mbalinda, Scovia/0000-0002-4945-130X

  svensson, kristin/0000-0002-7138-6209'
pages: 95-102
papis_id: 9242101633b3dfaeb03a33b27224c5ea
ref: Mbalinda2018experienceperceived
times-cited: '5'
title: Experience of perceived barriers and enablers of safe uninterrupted skin-to-skin
  contact during the first hour after birth in Uganda
type: article
unique-id: WOS:000447751500013
usage-count-last-180-days: '0'
usage-count-since-2013: '9'
volume: '67'
web-of-science-categories: Nursing
year: '2018'