Educational Activity with Guatemalan Lay Midwives about Helping Babies Breath.

Abstract

Reason. Guatemala's Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) of 18 deaths per 100,000 live births was 17th highest in the world in 2020. One contributor is lay midwives, who attend most births at home and often lack education about helping babies breathe (HBB). An educational activity that incorporated cultural humility was provided orally in the native language of participants about HBB. The educational activity was provided in the most remote department with some of the worst health outcomes in the country. Demographic and quality improvement data were collected. A pretest posttest was used to evaluate if the educational activity changed participants' knowledge. Findings. A t test showed a statistically significant change in knowledge from pretest (n=195, M=2.64, SD=1.27) to posttest (n=195, M=4.22, SD=1.37), 95% Confidence Interval, p=.0001. Conclusion. Educational activities for vulnerable populations with low literacy should be provided orally in the native language of participants and should be designed with cultural humility to maximize knowledge improvement.