WHO lays out recommendations to save newborns

The Week HNN Team

According to a recent report released by WHO titled Survive and thrive: transforming care for every small and sick newborn, it is crucial for the world to transform care for every newborn baby, in order to achieve the global target of health for all. Reducing neonatal mortality to 12 per 1,000 live births and under-five … Continued

Breaking The Mold For Pregnant Women in Sierra Leone

Verve Up Sierra Leone HNN Team

Leaning over the pregnant patient before her, Regina Korgbendeh touches the woman’s looming stomach and speaks softly in a Kono-dialect: “Thank you for this child.” Blessing an unborn baby is a custom strictly followed in communities throughout Kono, Sierra Leone. Once the prayer is complete, Regina, 48, leads her patient over to a chair, where … Continued

Mothers in Cameroon Are Dying at Shocking Rates. The GFF Will Help Change That.

Global Citizen Cameroon HNN Team

Despite investing more than its neighbors in sub-Saharan Africa on per-capita health spending, the country of Cameroon struggles to improve the reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health of its people — but that’s about to change. Cameroon ranks 18th among the countries with the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. In 2015, there … Continued

Free maternity services require solid funding

NewsDay Zimbabwe HNN Team

THE heavily pregnant woman lying on the floor in a maternity ward at Harare Central Hospital stretches out her hand to greet First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa. For the briefest moment, the woman forgets about the hard, cold and uncomfortable surface and basks in the glow of being in the presence of “greatness”. A wide grin … Continued

Displaced by crisis, South Sudan midwifery students focus on saving mothers

United Nations Population Fund South Sudan

JUBA, South Sudan – Nyomon Lilian will never forget the day she decided to become a midwife. It was a few years ago, in her hometown of Kajo Keji, in South Sudan’s Equatoria region. She watched as her neighbour bled out after giving birth. The woman was rushed to the hospital, but it was too … Continued

How Mbale Regional Hospital reduced newborn mortality from 52 to 11% in under 3 years

Makarere University Centre of Excellence for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health Uganda HNN Team

Ms Barbara Auma (right) of Tororo would now be in her final two weeks of pregnancy but her baby came almost three months earlier, writes Kakaire Ayub Kirunda. Prior to her ‘delivery’ Barbara bled for two days and the attending doctor had already written off the viability of the pregnancy outcome, documenting it as an abortion. … Continued

“And we give them tea”

Huffington Post HNN Team

Every Tuesday and Thursday morning the women of Sinai slums in Nairobi, Kenya gather at the Olivelink Healthcare Clinic. They bring their children for immunizations (for which they pay KES 20) and some bring Mandazi. I ask what Mandazi is and Josephine Suleiman, Founder of Olivelink Healthcare, explains with a smile and some amusement, “Mandazi … Continued

‘Sometimes the baby dies, sometimes the mother’: Life and death in Yemen’s hospitals

Washington Post Yemen HNN Team

The infant was barely breathing when his uncle brought him to the hospital in a cardboard box. He was wrapped in a blue towel, and wads of cotton were stuffed around his frail body to keep him warm. Muhammad Haithem was just hours old, born two months premature.His mother had gone into labor when an … Continued

Local leaders’ influence helps safe child birth in rural Bangladesh

bdnews24.com Bangladesh HNN Team

The family planning wing of the Bangladesh government has adopted a policy to use local government leaders’ influence in ensuring 24/7 normal delivery services and child care at the village level facilities.

Nigeria gets action plan to cater for sick newborns

The Guardian Nigeria HNN Team

The Federal Government has launched three new policy documents to tackle health of newborns. They are Nigeria Every Newborn Action Plan, Essential Newborn Care Course (ENCC) training package and National Chlorhexidine Scale Up Strategy document. The action plan is to serve as a roadmap that focuses on packages of interventions that address care during labour, … Continued