Caregivers’ workshop - voice of rural mothers to identify drowning risks and prevention intervention in Bangladesh.

Abstract

Background In Bangladesh about 14500 children die due to drowning every year. There are proven and WHO recognized interventions in Bangladesh to prevent child drowning though specific intervention for under-2-year-old children is still missing. ‘Sonamoni’ project aimed to identify sustainable intervention/s for under-2 children in Bangladesh following Human Centre Design (HCD) approach. Objective The objective of the research was to explore the daily activities of caregivers of under-2 children, to identify when children are at risk and unsupervised, to explore the supervision practice, to reveal caregivers’ perceptions on injury hazards around the household and to gather recommendations to prevent child drowning. Methods The qualitative method was conducted to do the research. The study settings were north, Sherpur Sadar, and south, Kalapara, of Bangladesh. Two-day workshops were organized with 27 mothers of u-2 children. The workshops were organised on 9–11 and 17–19 October 2023. Following a schedule, data were collected through drawing out caregivers’ daily activities from waking up till go to bed at night and child location during various household chores, mapping of stakeholders for child supervision, supervision practice for child, caregivers’ emotion during daily activities and showing injury hazard inside and around household where child can be injured. The data were analyzed following theme and sub-theme of the research objectives. Results It was found that cooking time for preparing lunch was the most vulnerable time for children, mother was the main caregiver followed by grandmother and siblings. Mothers used toys, mobiles, cartoons on tv and cardboard box to keep safe and engage the children. Parents ranked drowning is the main injury hazard followed by cut, burn, fall, poisoning and electrocution. Participants suggested having more toys to engage children, fencing the water bodies, daycare-enrollment and filling up the unnecessary ditches with soil around households, campaigning to aware mothers, family members and schoolteachers are the activities that can prevent child drowning. Conclusions Caregivers’ journey is an effective method by engaging caregivers to identify the time when children are at risk, child supervision practice, supervision practice and hazard around household. This community-led approach helps to identify acceptable injury, especially drowning prevention intervention.