Marwo Caafimaad Female Health Workers and Mothers Experiences

Abstract

The aim of this project is to describe the experiences amongst Somali mothers who received health education, antenatal care, and postnatal care from Marwo Caafimaad program in Puntland, Somalia, and to identify barriers and facilitators for the implementation of the program amongst Marwo Caafimaad program female health workers. We analyzed 6 semi-structured focus group discussions with mothers who received care and 9 in-depth interviews with female health workers who provide care to the communities. Key themes were identified as benefits and barriers to accessing the Marwo Caafimaad program. The mothers provided rich descriptions of the challenges in accessing reproductive health services locally. This context is important for understanding and interpreting their discussion of barriers and benefits of the Marwo Caafimaad program in their communities. Mothers highly value the Marwo Caafimaad program because of its community accessibility. Mothers also identified how key resources shortages undermine the impact of the program. The female health workers highly value the program but also recognize the challenges created by resource limitations and the need for expanded training. Recommendations are provided to strengthen and scale up the Marwo Caafimaad program.