Table 4 Summary of care practices and challenges

Care practice for preterm newborns

The preterm newborn is not bathed until it reaches 9 months corrected gestational age

Keeping the baby inside the house until it reaches 9 months corrected gestational age

Windows and doors of the house are kept closed all the time

Maintaining a clean environment (washing newborn clothes and sprinkling water around the house to control dust)

Use of plastic bottles and bags with hot water inside to provide warmth

Make fire inside the house to keep the house warm

Wrap the baby with blankets

Expressing breast milk (mothers squeezing the breast milk into a cup and using a spoon to feed the newborn)

Couples with a preterm newborn refrain from sex until required time when couples take traditional medicine

Challenges faced in caring for preterm newborns

The preterm newborns fall sick often times

Poverty- no money to buy paraffin, to pay hospital bills and transport, to buy warm materials and to improve the condition of the house if leaking

Mother to preterm baby fails to do business and household chores i.e. farming and fetching firewood

Men start having other sexual affairs outside marriage

Lack of knowledge on how to properly care for preterm newborns