First-Of-Its-Kind Development Impact Bond Launched in Cameroon to Save Newborn Babies

Grand Challenges Canada Cameroon HNN Team

Photo Credit: Siegfried Modola / Save the Children Money will fund scale up of Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) in Cameroon to help newborns survive and thrive; The Cameroon Kangaroo Mother Care Development Impact Bond (Cameroon KMC DIB) aims to reach more than 2,200 newborns with life-improving care; The investor, Grand Challenges Canada, will provide the … Continued

Kenya’s first human milk bank finally ready to save babies’ lives

Daily Nation Kenya, South Africa, Brazil HNN Team

Had Alice Onyango given birth at another time, things would have been different. She would have had to express milk from her aching engorged breasts – the milk that her preterm baby had no energy to suckle – and pour it down the drain. But the mother of three gave birth last week at Pumwani … Continued

Preterm birth study completes emergency obstetrics training at six Ugandan hospitals

Makerere University Centre of Excellence for Maternal Newborn and Child Health Uganda HNN Team

An expectant mother is ushered into the maternity ward. Noticeably, she is in pain. She is quickly reviewed by a midwife. Although her gestation is 37 weeks, she is told she is in the second stage of labour and should be delivering shortly. She is a preterm labour case and is being treated as an … Continued

Secrets of early life revealed from less than half a teaspoon of blood

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Gambia, Papua New Guinea HNN Team

A global team of scientists have mapped the developmental pathway of a newborn’s life for the first time. The research, published in Nature Communications, could transform our understanding of health and disease in babies. Co-led by the MRC Unit The Gambia at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the new study included lifting … Continued

Most Pregnancies Last 9 Months. Why Is the Deadliness of Childbirth Still Taking Us by Surprise?

Global Citizen Ethiopia, Haiti, Philippines, Liberia HNN Team

Vaccines help to dramatically reduce maternal and neonatal deaths. Article by Anuradha Gupta, Deputy CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance Measles, cholera, and diphtheria can kill quickly and without any warning. Yet with childbirth we get nine months’ notice, and it still kills more people every year than these three diseases combined. It’s not just … Continued

Pneumonia: how the world’s biggest killer of children became a neglected disease

Telegraph UK Ethiopia, Nepal HNN Team

When two-year old Sienna Wilson suddenly developed a fever in the middle of the night the first thing her parents, Kate and David, suspected was malaria. When the doctor arrived in the morning he agreed. He began treating her accordingly. Hours later, unconscious and in a critical condition, Sienna was airlifted to a private hospital … Continued

Kenya now eliminates maternal and neonatal tetanus

World Health Organization Kenya Kenya HNN Team

Kenya has attained maternal and neonatal tetanus elimination status, MNTE, following a successful WHO-led validation process in 2018 to confirm the elimination of the disease. The process was preceded by a pre-validation assessment in September 2017 done by the Ministry of Health with the support of WHO and UNICEF. Elimination of maternal and neonatal tetanus … Continued

Providing additional support to women in Burkina Faso can boost rates of exclusive breastfeeding

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Burkina Faso HNN Team

Intervention potential route to improving child health in West Africa Interventions which educate and support new mothers in West Africa to exclusively breastfeed (where infants are only fed breast milk) can significantly increase the practice, according to new research published in The Lancet Global Health. In a randomised trial of new mothers in Burkina Faso, led … Continued

Nigeria’s ‘Flying Midwives’ Are Helping Save Moms and Babies

Time Nigeria HNN Team

By Aryn Baker | Photographs by Lynsey Addario for TIME February 7, 2019 In the small, whitewashed medical clinic of Banki, one of northeastern Nigeria’s largest camps for internally displaced people (IDP), midwife Stella Aneto takes a rare pause between deliveries to catch her breath. Before wiping down the clinic’s sole delivery bed with disinfectant, Aneto glances at the clinic … Continued

EarlySense Selected by Save the Children for an Evaluation of Neonatal Health Monitoring Technologies in Africa

NBC 2 Kenya HNN Team

WOBURN, Massachusetts, Feb. 5, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — EarlySense, the market leader in contact-free continuous monitoring solutions across the care continuum, announced today that it has been selected for a pilot project with Save the Children, an international nonprofit that works in 120 countries. This work is supported by a grant from the Bill & Melinda … Continued