Table 2.

Analytical framework

		Codes	Sub Theme	Theme
Perceived Benefits of home visits and phone consultations	Women & Village Health Teams	• Perceived Benefits of home visits for the mother	• Mediated appointments between pregnant women/mother and health workers	• Promoted trust in the health system
				• Indirectly improved level of knowledge for VHTs
		• Perceived benefits of home visits for the newborn	• Facilitated access to care & additional information and improved the referral process
		• General benefits of home visits	• Encouraged maternal and newborn service utilisation
		• Perceived benefits of mobile phone consultation for the mother and newborn	• Phone consultations saved time and reduced transport costs
			• Now we are famous in the
			• community- Elevated social status for VHTs & Participant women
				• Promoted confidence among VHTs, ingredient for sustainability of voluntary programme
		• Perceived benefit for the newborn	• Provided additional information and lead to attitudinal change
			• Women felt better cared for than before the program began Elicited male partner support
		• Perceived general benefits of mobile phone consultation
Perception regarding recommended newborn care practices	Women & Village Health Teams	• Perceptions about newborn care-	• Nearly all VHTs practiced recommended practices Women & VHTs perceived as beneficial recommended maternal and newborn care practices	• Lived experiences are powerful tools for attitudinal change-prerequisite for behaviour change
		• none application of substance on the cord-
		• delayed bathing for 3 days-
		• initiation of breastfeeding within one-hour and avoiding pre-lacteal feeds
			• Some VHTs doubted practicalities of delayed bathing and exclusive breastfeeding
				• Recommended practices not accepted in minority of VHTs-may compromise the benefits of home visits
Perception regarding delegation of promotional maternal and newborn messages to VHTs	Professional health workers	• Beneficial	• Mostly accepted by professional health workers to delegate promotional maternal and newborn interventions	• Acceptable to work with VHTs
				• Sceptics about competencies of VHTs to offer maternal and newborn care
		• Not beneficial
		• Maybe	• Caution about their mandate and how much they can perform regarding maternal and newborn care
				• Fear of over “professionalising” VHTs
			• Abuse of the responsibility accorded to them