This webinar marked World Prematurity Day. This day raises awareness for the challenges of preterm birth and celebrates the lives of preterm infants and their families worldwide. Preterm birth is the leading cause of death in children under the age of five; each year, about 15 million babies worldwide are born preterm, that is about 1 in 10 children.

This webinar reviewed the gaps, solutions and opportunities to address preterm birth and scale up small and sick newborn care. Ministries of Health representatives shared their progress, experience and lessons learned in implementing and scaling up small and sick newborn care.

Agenda:

Welcome and introduction: Dr Anshu Banerjee, Director, Department for Maternal, Newborn, Child, Adolescent Health and Ageing, WHO Geneva

Small and Sick Newborn Care- Where are the gaps?

Progress across 106 countries for small and sick newborn care: Dr Gagan Gupta, Senior Advisor, Maternal and Newborn Health, UNICEF New York

Scaling up access to quality inpatient care for preterm babies in Ghana: Dr Chris Fofie, Deputy Director, Reproductive and Child Health Unit, Family Health Division, Ghana Health Service

Small and Sick Newborn care- What are the Solutions?

Panel of experts:

Moderated by Dr Queen Dube, Newborn Health Lead, Department for Maternal, Newborn, Child, Adolescent Health and Ageing, WHO Geneva

• Dr Felix Bundala, Director for Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, Ministry of Health, Tanzania
• Dr Dennis Marke, Program Manager, Health Systems Strengthening, Ministry of Health and Sanitation, Sierra Leone
• Dr Md. Jahurul Islam, Program Manager, National Newborn Health Program & Integrated Management of Childhood Illness, Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Bangladesh
• Dr Syeda Humaida Hasan, Consultant, Department of Neonatology, Chittagong Medical College Hospital, Bangladesh

Questions & Answers with the audience

This webinar was co-hosted by the Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing, World Health Organization Geneva and UNICEF HQ.

The World Health Organization in collaboration with partners are developing the second edition of the Essential Newborn Care Course (ENCC). The material provides the foundation for the essential care of every newborn: immediate care at birth, resuscitation when needed, breast milk feeding, thermal care, prevention of infection, recognition and response to danger signs. This course is part of a set of WHO resources for improving care of newborns; Human Resource Strategies to improve newborn care in health facilities in low- and middle-income countries, Standards for improving quality of maternal and newborn care in health facilities and the Standards for improving the quality of care for small and sick newborns in health facilities.

WHO, UNICEF and partners were able to conduct only limited field testing with users, prior to release of this interim version, due to travel and meeting restrictions during COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, this version is released for field testing in various settings, countries and regions in order to finalize and publish the 2nd edition of ENCC in 2022.

The ENCC materials can be accessed on WHO website.

Session plan:

Welcome and Introduction: Dr Rajiv Bahl, Newborn Health Unit Head, Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health, and Ageing, WHO Geneva

Part 1:

Opening remarks and official launch of the ENCC materials: Dr Anshu Banerjee, Director, Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health, and Ageing, WHO Geneva

Overview of the ENCC course: What's new? Dr Teshome Desta, Medical Officer, Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health, and Ageing, WHO Geneva

Brief remarks:

• Mr Tore Laerdal, Laerdal Global Health
• Dr Beena Kamath-Rayne, American Academy of Pediatrics
• Dr Marzia Lazzerini, WHO Collaborating Centre for Maternal and Child Health, Trieste

Questions & Answers

Part 2:

Panel discussion

• Dr John Ovuoraye, Federal Ministry of Health, Nigeria
• Dr Queen Dube, Ministry of Health, Malawi
• Dr Tedbabe Degefie Hailegabriel, UNICEF HQ
• Dr Leah Greenspan, USAID
• Dr William Keenan, International Pediatric Association
• Dr Marsha Campbell-Yeo, Council of International Neonatal Nurses
• Ms Erin Ryan, International Confederation of Midwives
• Ms Mona Tamannai, Médecins Sans Frontières
• Ms Janet Meyers, Save the Children

Closing remarks: Dr Teshome Desta, WHO

© UNICEF/UN0507468/Dejongh

The aim of this expert consultation is to arrive at a consensus on core elements of a generic model for inpatient small and sick newborn care at the district level. This is undertaken in order to support Ministries of Health activity to increase the coverage and quality of small and sick newborn care in line with the ENAP target by 2025 of 80% of districts with at least one functional level 2 (special care) inpatient newborn care unit including CPAP.

The aim of this expert consultation is to arrive at a consensus on core elements of a generic model for inpatient small and sick newborn care at the district level. This is undertaken in order to support Ministries of Health activity to increase the coverage and quality of small and sick newborn care in line with the ENAP target by 2025 of 80% of districts with at least one functional level 2 (special care) inpatient newborn care unit including CPAP.

The aim of this expert consultation is to arrive at a consensus on core elements of a generic model for inpatient small and sick newborn care at the district level. This is undertaken in order to support Ministries of Health activity to increase the coverage and quality of small and sick newborn care in line with the ENAP target by 2025 of 80% of districts with at least one functional level 2 (special care) inpatient newborn care unit including CPAP.

Thursday 23 September 2021

This webinar launched the Thematic Brief Nurturing care for every newborn and shared examples of practical actions to create and strengthen nurturing environments for newborns, including those born too soon, small or sick.

What happens during early childhood lays the foundation for a lifetime. Evidence has demonstrated clearly that the first hours, days and weeks after birth - the newborn period - are a precious time for a child’s survival, health and development. Knowledge and tools are available to provide every newborn with nurturing care that involves parents and other caregivers directly. To create the enabling environment for providing developmentally supportive care, there is a need to invest in policies, health systems and community awareness. As more newborns survive, we now need to make sure that they also can thrive. This is especially important for small and sick babies who are at greater risk of mortality, illness or disability when deprived from quality care.

Welcome: Olive Cocoman (Quality of Care Network Secretariat)

Part 1: What is nurturing care for every newborn

• Introduction to the Thematic Brief:  Ornella Lincetto and Bernadette Daelmans (WHO)
• Infant and family centered developmental care explained: Louise Tina Day (LSHTM)
• A parent perspective: Silke Mader (EFCNI)

Part 2: Creating nurturing environments for newborns

Facilitated by Bernadette Daelmans, Unit Head Child Health and Development, World Health Organization

• India: Influencing national policy and standards - Prof Arti Maria
• Lebanon: Care for child development in newborn services - Dr Lama Charafeddine
• Sweden: Making NICU’s infant and family-friendly - Ylva Thernström Blomqvist
• The Philippines: Integrating developmentally supportive newborn care in the national health benefit package - Dr Socorro De Leon- Mendoza
• Colombia: Sustaining kangaroo mother care during COVID-19 - Dr Nathalie Charpak

Part 3: Questions and Answers

Facilitated by Sheila Manji, ECD Specialist Child Health and Development, World Health Organization

Part 4: Reflections from partners

Facilitated by Shekufeh Zonji, Global Technical Lead, ECD Action Network

• Lily Kak (USAID)
• Prof Joy Lawn (LSHTM)
• Alison Morgan (Global Financing Facility)
• Neena Khadka (USAID Momentum)

Closing remarks:

Facilitated by Bernadette Daelmans

• Tedbabe Hailegebriel (UNICEF)
• Anshu Banerjee (WHO)

This webinar was organized by the World Health Organization and UNICEF, in collaboration with the Network for Improving Quality of Care for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, the Quality of Care subgroup of the Child Health Task Force, and the ECD Action Network.

This webinar shared new evidence on Kangaroo Mother Care and the impact of initiating KMC as soon as possible after birth compared with current recommendation of initiating continuous KMC only after clinical stabilization.

Part 1: Presentation

• Dr Rajiv Bahl, Newborn Unit Head & Head of Research, Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing World Health Organization, Geneva

Panel discussion:

• Dr Harish Chellani, Professor of Pediatrics, Safdarjung Hospital and Vardhan Mahavir Medical College, India
• Dr Helga Naburi, Pediatrician, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Science, Tanzania
• Dr Gyikua Plange-Rhule, Senior Lecturer, Department of Child Health, Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Ghana
• Dr Kondwani Kawaza, Pediatrician & Lecturer, College of Medicine, University of Malawi, Malawi
• Dr Ebunoluwa Adejuyigbe, Professor of Paediatrics, Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria
• Dr Nils Bergman, Researcher, Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, Karolinska Institute, Sweden

Part 2: Questions & Answers

This series is organized by the Network for Improving Quality of Care for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health and ENAP, with the support of UNICEF and the World Health Organization.

This webinar took a closer look at strategies for countries to transform their policies on human resources for health and provide health workers with the knowledge and technical skills necessary for high-quality care by 2030, to ensure that all newborns survive and thrive. The WHO recommendations published in 2020 and experience of Kenya in developing a neonatal nursing cadre were presented.

This series is organized by the Network for Improving Quality of Care for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health and ENAP, with the support of UNICEF and the World Health Organization.

Taking forward the demand for sharing country experiences of challenges faced, solutions sought and lesson learned, this series of webinars will run from May 2021 to May 2022, This series builds on the content of the series that began in 2020 which focused on country experiences to transform care and the evidence-base published in the WHO and UNICEF report Survive and Thrive; Transforming care for every small and sick newborn (2019). These webinars will accompany the learning and experience implementing the WHO Standards for improving the quality of care for small and sick newborns in health facilities (2020) and related guidance for their implementation. 

This webinar firstly deep dived into the new standards of care for small and sick newborns in health facilities and secondly shared the progress and challenges in implementing the standards at regional level. Thirdly, a toolkit to support implementation of small and sick newborn care and enable joint learning was introduced.

This series is organized by the Network for Improving Quality of Care for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health and ENAP, with the support of UNICEF and the World Health Organization.