The IDEAS project sought to improve the health and survival of mothers and babies through generating evidence to inform policy and practice. One strand of work was an evaluation of Community Based Newborn Care (CBNC), a care package rolled out across the country by the Federal Government of Ethiopia. Under CBNC, frontline health workers provide ‘Four Cs’: contact with newborns; case identification of neotnatal sepsis; and care and completion of treatment. The aim of this study was to develop an understanding of the challenges to and opportunities for delivering the Four Cs; factors affecting the motivation of frontline health workers in delivering the Four Cs; factors affecting demand for newborn care – from the perspective of the frontline health workers; and the opportunities and challenges for communication, supervision and referral linkages. This data collection contains interview field notes, pre-analysis templates and supporting information from 16 randomly selected woredas – four each from four regions in Ethiopia: Oromia, Amhara, Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples (SNNP) and Tigray.

The field notes and 16 pre-analysis templates for this study are stored on the LSHTM Secure Server, but cannot be made available due to the extent of personal information and difficulty of anonymisation without context loss. The annexes of the study protocol include the following study tools: informed consent form, interview topic guide in English and Amharic, data management procedures, model expanded field notes, pre-analysis template, study training and field manual. The topic guides were also translated into Tigrinya and Oromiffa.

maternal and newborn health, Ethiopia, IDEAS, Qualitative research