ArticleBMC pediatrics2022
Perspectives on Resuscitation Decisions at the Margin of Viability among Specialist Newborn Care Providers in Ghana and Ethiopia: A Qualitative Analysis.
Article in BMC pediatrics, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Ethical challenges and moral conflicts in periviability prenatal counseling: a scoping review of healthcare professionals' perspectives.BMC medical ethics · 2026Article
- Are guidelines needed? International perspectives on decision-making and practice variation in the care of extremely preterm infants.Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association · 2026Article
- The Power of Professional Clinical Ethicists in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: An Ethiopian Perspective.The American journal of bioethics : AJOB · 2025Article
- Perinatal loss in Tanzania: Perspectives of maternal-child healthcare providers.PLOS global public health · 2024Article
- Perinatal palliative care in sub-Saharan Africa: recommendations for practice, future research, and guideline development.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIn high income countries, guidelines exist recommending gestational age thresholds for offering and obligating neonatal resuscitation for extremely preterm infants. In low- and middle- income countries, this approach may be impractical due to limited/inconsistent resource availability and challenges in gestational dating. Scant literature exists on how clinicians in these settings conceptualize viability or make resuscitation decisions for premature infants.
methodsQualitative interviews of interprofessional neonatal clinicians were conducted in Kumasi, Ghana, at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital and Suntreso Government Hospital, and in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at St. Paul's Hospital Millennium Medical College. Transcribed interviews were coded through the constant comparative method.
resultsThree discrete major themes were identified. The principal theme was a respect for all life, regardless of the likelihood for survival. This sense of duty arose from a duty to God, a duty to the patient, and a duty intrinsic to one's role as a medical provider. The duty to resuscitate was balanced by the second major theme, an acceptance of futility for many premature infants. Lack of resources, inappropriate staffing, and historically high local neonatal mortality rates were often described. The third theme was a desire to meet global standards of newborn care, including having resources to adopt the 22-25-week thresholds used in high income countries and being able to consistently provide life-saving measures to premature infants.
conclusionsNeonatal clinicians in Ghana and Ethiopia described respect for all life and desire to meet global standards of newborn care, balanced with an awareness of futility based on local resource limitations. In both countries, clinicians highlighted how wide variations in regional survival outcomes limited their ability to rely on structured resuscitation guidelines based on gestational age and/or birthweight.
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