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