Background: The World Health Organizatiońs new recommendations for antenatal care (ANC) include one ultrasound examination before 24 weeks of gestation. Implementation of ultrasound in ANC in low resource countries has been shown to increase pregnant women’s compliance to ANC visits, and facilitate detection of high-risk pregnancies. The aim of this study was to explore Rwandan health professionals’ experiences and views of obstetric ultrasound in relation to clinical management, resources and skills.
Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire study involving physicians (n = 222), obstetricians (n = 29), nurses (n = 387) and midwives (n = 269) managing pregnant women in RWANDA was performed, as part of the CROss Country Ultrasound Study (CROCUS). Data were collected at 106 health facilities from November 2016 – March 2017.
Preliminary results: One third of the participants performed ultrasound examinations (32.3%) and the majority on a daily basis (60.1%). The ultrasound examination where most participants reported high level skills was evaluation of the fetal heart rate (69.0%). A majority reported no skills or low level skills (79.9%) for ultrasound examination of the fetal heart, aorta and pulmonary artery. A majority (65.0%) reported that lack of ultrasound training of the ultrasound operator sometimes led to suboptimal pregnancy management. Almost all participants (91.3%) agreed that ANC would be improved if midwives were qualified to perform basic ultrasound examinations.
Conclusions: The vast majority of health professionals in the study believed that maternity care can be improved if midwives learn to perform basic ultrasound examinations. Additional training of physicians performing obstetric ultrasound was also suggested to increase the quality of obstetric ultrasound surveillance and to further improve maternal and fetal health outcomes.
Key messages: