Simple training in how to help a newborn baby start breathing and to keep it warm and clean can slash the rate of stillbirths by a third in poor, rural areas of the world.
Simple training in how to help a newborn baby start breathing and to keep it warm and clean can slash the rate of stillbirths by a third in poor, rural areas of the world.
According to the World Health Organization, every year 3.7 million newborns die and 3.3 million babies are born dead (stillbirths). Approximately 38 percent of deaths among children younger than 5 years of age occur during the first 28 days of life, and 75 percent of the neonatal deaths occur within the first seven days.
Researchers gave their trainees hand-held pumps and masks to fill babies' lungs with air if they were not breathing at birth, clean-delivery kits to prevent infection and scales to measure their weight. They sent out a team of training experts in rural, poor areas of Argentina, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guatemala, India, Pakistan, and Zambia. Not only were they given clean delivery kits, the Essential Newborn Care course included routine newborn baby care, initiation of breathing and resuscitation, keeping the baby warm, early and exclusive breast-feeding, kangaroo (skin-to-skin) care, care of small babies, recognition of danger signs, and recognition and initial management of complications. The birth attendants taught the mothers to implement the Essential Newborn Care practices - to weigh low-weight babies, who are vulnerable, and ensure they are fed properly in the first days after delivery.
It was found that the programme, which covered 62,366 births, did not affect how many live-born babies died in the first week but it slashed the rate of stillbirths. The rate of stillbirths in rural parts of six developing countries fell by more than 30 percent after midwives, nurses, doctors and other traditional birth attendants were trained. After the training programme, the number of stillbirths fell from 23 per 1,000 newborns to 16 per 1,000, which is a large reduction in mortality. Many of the babies who survived probably did not breathe on their own at first.
The above findings are a major breakthrough and the researchers concluded that if implemented worldwide, such an intervention could markedly reduce perinatal mortality.
According to the World Health Organization, every year 3.7 million newborns die and 3.3 million babies are born dead (stillbirths). Approximately 38 percent of deaths among children younger than 5 years of age occur during the first 28 days of life, and 75 percent of the neonatal deaths occur within the first seven days.
Researchers gave their trainees hand-held pumps and masks to fill babies' lungs with air if they were not breathing at birth, clean-delivery kits to prevent infection and scales to measure their weight. They sent out a team of training experts in rural, poor areas of Argentina, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guatemala, India, Pakistan, and Zambia. Not only were they given clean delivery kits, the Essential Newborn Care course included routine newborn baby care, initiation of breathing and resuscitation, keeping the baby warm, early and exclusive breast-feeding, kangaroo (skin-to-skin) care, care of small babies, recognition of danger signs, and recognition and initial management of complications. The birth attendants taught the mothers to implement the Essential Newborn Care practices - to weigh low-weight babies, who are vulnerable, and ensure they are fed properly in the first days after delivery.
It was found that the programme, which covered 62,366 births, did not affect how many live-born babies died in the first week but it slashed the rate of stillbirths. The rate of stillbirths in rural parts of six developing countries fell by more than 30 percent after midwives, nurses, doctors and other traditional birth attendants were trained. After the training programme, the number of stillbirths fell from 23 per 1,000 newborns to 16 per 1,000, which is a large reduction in mortality. Many of the babies who survived probably did not breathe on their own at first.
The above findings are a major breakthrough and the researchers concluded that if implemented worldwide, such an intervention could markedly reduce perinatal mortality.
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