These Chennai Mothers Donate Their Milk To Unknown Infants Who Need It The Most

India Times India HNN Team

For the past few months, Sharanya Govindarajalu has been helping save lives in a way only a new mother can – by donating her breast milk. Five days a week, the 32-year-old mother of a seven-month-old sends 100ml to 150ml of her breast milk to a neonatal hospital so it can be used to feed … Continued

The Tiny Bracelet That Saves Newborns from Hypothermia

The Development Set India HNN Team

 A new battery-powered device beeps when a premature baby’s temperature drops, alerting parents to care for them “Low birth weight newborns need special care and attention because they can easily become hypothermic,” said neonatologist Dr. Jagadish Somanna, a research associate at IGICH. Hypothermia is a condition where a baby’s core temperature falls below 36.5 C … Continued

India Part of Health Network to Reduce Maternal, Newborn Deaths

India-West India HNN Team

India is among nine countries that have created a United Nations agencies-supported health network to significantly reduce maternal and newborn deaths in health facilities. The countries’ governments have pledged to halve the deaths at facilities by 2022, according to a U.N. news release. The other countries in the health network include Bangladesh, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, … Continued

Nine countries commit to halve maternal and newborn deaths in health facilities

WHO Bangladesh, India, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania, United Republic of, Uganda, Nigeria

New WHO and UNICEF-supported network to improve care for mothers and babies On February 14 of 2017, 9 countries – Bangladesh, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda – committed to halving preventable deaths of pregnant women and newborns in their health facilities within the next 5 years. Through a new Network … Continued

India’s kangaroo mother care: up close and personal

FT India HNN Team

A project where mothers breastfeed early and hold their babies skin to skin aims to reduce neonatal deaths When Sushma Sahu gave birth to her first son six years ago in a village in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, her mother-in-law asked the local Hindu priest to recommend an auspicious time to start breastfeeding … Continued

Provider, improve thyself

MIT News India HNN Team

Study shows unlicensed health care practitioners in India improve with modest training. Peter Dizikes | MIT News Office October 6, 2016 In the developing world, a large portion of health care providers have no formal medical training. Now a new study of rural India, co-authored by an MIT professor, shows that modest levels of medical … Continued

Why Are Indian Women Not Breastfeeding

NDTV India HNN Team

India is home to the world’s highest proportion of “small babies” with 46.9 per cent of babies born small for gestational age, contributing to 29 per cent neonatal deaths each year – the most in the world – with prematurity (babies born before 37 weeks) being the leading cause. Ensuring access to human milk is … Continued

UP hospitals to fight infant mortality with mom’s magic touch

Hindustan Times India HNN Team

In a bright and colourful room in the government-run Veerangana Avanti Bai Women’s Hospital in Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow, mothers are quietly nurturing their premature infants through their touch. With soothing music in the background, the skin-to-skin contact or Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) between the mother and the baby works wonders ensuring the survival of these … Continued

Midwives Are Essential to Global Health

United States of America, Brazil, India, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Indonesia HNN Team

By Jerker Liljestrand, Senior Program Officer of Maternal, Newborn and Child Health at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Midwives have supported women during childbirth since ancient Egyptian times, and today, in many parts of the world, they are providing a unique set of lifesaving services for mothers and babies. Midwives are trained with a … Continued

Three births

Financial Times India, Mexico, Congo HNN Team

The day a baby is born in the developing world will be the most dangerous of its life — and can be just as perilous for its mother. Amy Kazmin, Jude Webber and Andrew Jack, FT reporters on three continents, follow the fates of three women and their babies.