Retention of Helping Babies Breathe Training among Midwives and Nurses at Four Rwandan Health Centers

Background Worldwide, neonatal mortality remains a significant burden. One substantial cause of mortality is asphyxia, where neonates fail to breathe on their own at birth and need some form of assistance to initiate or maintain breathing. The Helping Babies Breathe (HBB) training program has proven to be helpful in the reduction of asphyxia-related neonatal mortality in developing countries. Objective To assess the HBB knowledge and skills retention at two-days and six-weeks post HBB training among midwives and nurses working in selected health centers in Kigali, Rwanda. Methods A quasi-experimental design with a pre-test, post-test, and intervention using HBB (2nd Edition) program was used. Sixty midwives and nurses were purposively selected from the four study sites. Knowledge and skills retention of HBB was evaluated at two-days and six-weeks post-training.  Results The majority of participants were nurses (90%), females (70%), and had advanced diploma (63%). Knowledge overall mean scores improved from pre-test (8.75) to post-test (16.90). Skills mean scores slightly dropped from 21.77 at day two to 19.73).  Conclusion Our results indicated that there was retention of knowledge and skills among the midwives and nurses at day two and six-weeks post HBB training. Refresher training programs are needed to keep providers skilled for resuscitation in order to lower neonatal mortality in Rwanda. Rwanda J Med Health Sci 2020;3(2):250-260