Background: Kangaroo mother care is essential improves outcomes of premature and low birth weight infants. Even though kangaroo mother care is now recognized by global experts as an integral part of essential newborn care, the adoption and implementation of the kangaroo mother care is still challenging. Aim of this study to explore perceived enablers and barriers of kangaroo mother care among mothers and nurses in neonatal intensive care unit.
Methods: Descriptive Phenomenological study design was conducted in Tikur Anbessa Specialized referral Hospital at Addis Ababa with 13 mothers and 7 nurses from 10^th May -15^th July, 2020. In-depth interview used with semi-structured questionnaire and data was collected till saturation of information. Thematic analysis was done with ATLAS.Ti software version 7.5.16 .
Results: Major enablers and barriers of practicing kangaroo mother care among mothers and nurses reported that lack of understanding of KMC, family responsibility and workload, lack of awareness of KMC by community, social practice and traditional adaptation were the barriers to practice of KMC. Poor supervision and follow-up, limited resource especially sanitation resource are the major barriers related to health staff and setting. Nurses reported that scale- up of kangaroo mother care was influenced by absence of training, poor attention given by managers and administrative, shortage of rooms and facilities, workload and time shortage.
Conclusion: A complex array of barriers and enablers determine a mother’s and nurses ability to provide KMC. Improve the mothers' to practice KMC and to promote the health of preterm infants, supports such as family, community and health professional support needed. Nurses needed in-service education, proper administration and less workload to promote KMC practice.