Methods and the baseline situation in the field trial of home-based neonatal care in Gadchiroli, India.

In this paper, we describe the planning of the field trial and the methods used for collecting baseline health and ethnographic data in a rural field study site. We describe the study hypotheses, specific objectives, study design, sample size estimates, selection of study area, community consent, the organization of study teams, review mechanism, financial support and baseline data collection. Baseline population characteristics and vital statistics are presented. The qualitative information on traditional beliefs and practices prevalent in the study area revealed that parents felt powerless about newborn health and sickness. There was an enormous unmet need to reach the home-delivered neonates and their care-givers with the correct knowledge and health-care practices.