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Background The Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV programme in Zimbabwe has had remarkable success despite the country’s economic challenges. The aim of this study was to explore the challenges faced by breastfeeding mothers on the PMTCT programme. Method Narratives from 15 women (age range 19–35 years) were collected at two rural health facilities in Zimbabwe through in-depth interviews over a period of 6 months. Thematic analysis was used to describe breastfeeding mothers’ experiences and challenges of being on the PMTCT programme. Results The findings suggest that breastfeeding women on the PMTCT programme face challenges that include internal, external and institutional stigma and discrimination. Women reported a sense of powerlessness in decision making on following through with the PMTCT programme and were ambivalent regarding disclosure of their HIV status to their partners and significant others. Conclusion HIV and AIDS programmes should pay attention to women’s readiness for interventions. There is need to understand women’s life experiences to ensure informed and targeted programming for PMTCT. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12884-019-2336-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Epilepsy is the most common condition reported through the psychiatric returns surveillance system in Gokwe South District. Review visits attendance is crucial to the successful control of seizures among epilepsy patients. We sought out to establish the attendance pattern of epileptic patients, prevalence of non-attendance and the associated factors. An analytic cross-sectional study was conducted where consenting respondents (N=110) were selected randomly from the district epilepsy register. Interviewer-administered questionnaires were used to collect data. Odds ratios were calculated to determine associations. Logistic regression analysis was done to identify independent risk factors and to control for confounding variables. A total of 110 epileptic patients were included in the study. The patients missed treatment review visits ranging from 1 to 11 of the expected 12 visits between June 2011 and June 2012. Most (70.9%) missed at least 2 visits in a 12month period while 46.4% missed 2 or more consecutive visits. Knowledge of treatment duration [prevalence odds ratio (POR) 0.24 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.08-0.74)] and high risk perception [POR 0.14 (95% CI: 0.06-0.33)] were associated with a lower likelihood of missing review visits. Barriers such as shortage of drugs [POR 7.09 (95% CI: 3.00-16.72)] and long distances to health facilities [POR 6.63 (95% CI: 2.63-16.76)] were associated with high likelihood of missing two or more review visits consecutively. Shortage of drugs [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 6.7336 (95% CI: 1.8538-24.4581)] and higher risk perception [AOR 0.1948 (95% CI: 0.0625-0.6071)] remained significant on logistic regression analysis. A high number of epileptic patients miss their review visits mainly owing to shortage of drugs, and long distances from health facilities.

Background: Travel time and healthcare financing are critical determinants of the provision of quality maternal health care in low resource settings. Despite the availability of pregnancy-related mHealth and smart travel applications, there is a lack of evidence on their usage to travel to health facilities for routine antenatal care and emergencies. There is a shortage of information about the feasibility of using a custom-made mobile technology that integrates smart travel and mHealth. This paper explores the feasibility of implementing a custom-made geographically enabled mobile technology-based tool (RoadMApp) to counter the adverse effects of long travel times for maternal care in Kwekwe District, Zimbabwe. Methods: We frame the paper using the first two steps (listen & plan) of the Spiral Technology Action Research (STAR model). The paper uses an exploratory case study design and Participatory Learning Approaches (PLA) with stakeholders (community members) and in-depth interviews with key informants (health care service providers, pregnant women, transport operators). One hundred ninety-three participants took part in the study. We conducted focus group discussions with pregnant women, women of childbearing age, men (household heads), and elderly women. The discussion questions centered on travel time, availability of transport, cellular network coverage, and perceptions of the RoadMApp application. Data were analysed thematically using Nvivo Pro 12. Results: Most parts of rural Kwekwe are far from health facilities and have an inefficient road and telecommunications network. Hence, it is hard to predict if RoadMApp will integrate into the lives of the community-especially those in rural areas. Since these issues are pillars of the design of the RoadMApp mHealth, the implementation will probably be a challenge.