The Healthy Newborn Partnership
Preventing newborn deaths requires partnership among many local, national, and international institutions. The Healthy Newborn Partnership was an interagency group formed in 2000 to:
- Promote attention and action to improve newborn health and survival;
- Provide a forum for information exchange on programmatic, research, training, and communication issues related to newborn care; and
- Partner with organizations on collaborative advocacy and country-level activities.
The Partnership acted in close cooperation with other relevant groups, such as the Partnership for Safe Motherhood and Newborn Health and the Child Survival Partnership to support a continuum of care from pregnancy, through the newborn period and childhood.
Click here to learn more about the partnerships' activities.
The Healthy Newborn Partnership joined forces with the Child Survival Partnership and the Partnership for Safe Motherhood and Newborn Health to form
"THE PARTNERSHIP FOR MATERNAL, NEWBORN AND CHILD HEALTH."
Too Many Newborn Deaths
For many mothers and newborns in developing countries, childbirth is a risky business. During pregnancy, childbirth, and the first days after delivery, mothers and newborns face a series of threats to their health and survival. Too many die. Each year, 4 million babies die before they reach one month of age and an equal number are stillborn. A newborn in West Africa is almost 20 times more likely to die in the first month of life than one born in Northern Europe.
Newborn deaths now represent almost 40 percent of all deaths to children under age five. If the Millennium Development Goal for child survival is to be met, priority must be given to reducing the neonatal mortality rate.
Will newborns — often overlooked by health programs — receive the attention they deserve? The majority of these deaths are preventable; and the solutions do not lie in expensive technology or highly trained medical specialists. Rather, proven, low-tech health interventions can make the difference between life and death for the majority of mothers and newborns.
Women and newborns in many countries often do not reach health centers or hospitals for reasons of inaccessibility, expense, cultural acceptablility, or poor quality of care. Policymakers need to develop comprehensive, locally appropriate strategies to integrate essential newborn care into existing health systems, and promote healthy newborn care practices in the home.
Reaching Families and Communities
The key to newborn survival is essential care at the primary health care level during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postnatal period. To ensure effective care, health workers must have the necessary drugs, supplies and equipment, as well as access to referral-level health care for management of complications.
Just as important, however, is working with community and family decision-makers to address key issues of newborn survival. The promotion and support of healthy home care practices such as early, exclusive breastfeeding, cleanliness, and warmth help to prevent illness. Barriers to health care for pregnant women and newborns need to be identified and addressed, including those related to early recognition of illness, transport availability, and appropriate treatment. Health care providers need competency in health care provision, but also in working with women, families, and communities to support them in making healthy choices for maternal and newborn care.
Proven, cost-effective newborn care practices and services can be integrated into existing safe motherhood and child survival programs, which also benefit women, older infants and children. However, expansion of services is necessary to ensure care for all women and newborns who need it. Governments must invest in strengthening the health care system, improving skills of health providers, and ensuring reliable provision of drugs and equipment. National guidelines for the care of mother and baby provide a framework to deliver higher quality of care, allowing women and newborns to survive and thrive.
Many factors that impact newborn health are determined before pregnancy. A truly comprehensive response to the problem of neonatal mortality will therefore require a cross-sectoral approach that aims to improve the health, nutrition, birth spacing, and status of women.
Broadening Support for Newborn Health
To achieve the Millennium Development Goal for reducing under-5 mortality set for 2015, the current global average neonatal mortality rate (34 deaths in the first month of life per 1,000 live births) will need to be halved — a task requiring significant and sustained efforts. The United Nations, the international community, and national leaders must take action to ensure that newborns are given a chance for a healthy future. In countries with high rates of newborn death, the commitment, initiative, and capability of decision-makers in government can have a significant impact on the survival and health of women and newborns. In addition, governments can work with local communities, NGOs, and assistance agencies to introduce and strengthen newborn health policies and programs through:
- Partnering with health care professionals to ensure expanded and strengthened health care delivery and better information regarding newborn health outcomes;
- Raising awareness among families of the importance of care during pregnancy and childbirth as well as after delivery; and
- Supporting improved government policies and expenditures for newborn care.
Click here for the Policy & Perspectives brief on HNP
Click here to access the Healthy Newborn Partnership's tools and resources.
(This document is also available in PDF format.)
