Addressing Neonatal Mortality in Rural Guatemala

Guatemala has some of the highest rates of neonatal mortality in Latin America, disproportionately more prevalent in rural and Indigenous communities. In 2017, the Maya Health Alliance implemented a project to improve maternal and child health outcomes in these communities. While rates of maternal mortality improved significantly, newborn deaths were not equally impacted. The curiosity to understand why this was the case led to the design of a mixed methods research study to highlight the complexities of neonatal mortality among these populations. In 2021, Global Health Pediatric Fellow, Dr. Anahi Venzor Strader, began collaborating with the Maya Health Alliance to collect data and conduct interviews with mothers, healthcare workers and midwives in Tecpan, Chimaltenango, Guatemala. The study was designed to gain a deeper understanding of the biological, social, historical, cultural, and economic reasons why neonatal mortality rates remain high and to amplify the voices of those most proximate to this suffering. Data collection has been completed and a manuscript is in process. In total, 33 interviews were conducted; ten with traditional Maya midwives, seven with local healthcare professionals (nurses, pediatricians, public health officials), and sixteen with mothers of infants in rural communities, including ten who have suffered at least one neonatal death. The project's ultimate goal is to collaboratively design research-based neonatal care strategies that could help reduce the prevalence of preventable neonatal deaths. We understand that some of the causes behind neonatal mortalities are structural and/or institutional but hope this research will illuminate these structural forces and guide advocacy efforts at local and national levels.