The riskiest period in a newborn’s life

A lot of work is involved in caring for a newborn baby.

In fact, the first 24 hours around childbirth and the first day of a baby’s life carry the greatest risk.

Unfortunately, mothers as well as health workers are not properly educated on this and as a result, Papua New Guinea loses 5-6 thousand newborn babies every year.

The main causes of these deaths are neonatal infection, birth asphyxia, prematurity and low birthweight, among a few others.

All these causes can be reversed with the practise of proper Early Essential Newborn Care (EENC).

For instance, birth asphyxia is when a baby's brain and other organs do not get enough oxygen before, during or right after birth. And resuscitation of a newborn baby can reduce neonatal mortality by 5-20 percent.

Or for those born prematurely with low birth weight - extra care including extra warmth, hygiene and feeding, can reduce deaths by 20-50 percent.

Sadly, in most facilities, especially in rural centres, health workers lack either proper training or proper equipment.

And for the most remote parts of the country, there is no skilled assistance at all.

This puts PNG on the 20th position out of 193 countries with high neo-natal mortality rates.

A comprehensive newborn care initiative will deliver the country from this.

UNICEF has already rolled out the EENC project into 11 provinces.

In 2015, it started with only 34 health facilities in these 11 provinces, expanding to 170 health facilities in 2016.

As of 2017, the project is practiced by 244 facilities, reaching 126 thousand new born babies.

The target this year is to reach 256 facilities.

Author: 
Gloria Bauai