Newborn Health and Survival: Spotlight on Pakistan

FAZZINA_L1002734Hoormat, one of Pakistan's trained Lady Health Workers, packs up her basic health kit before making rounds of home visits to expectant mothers and newborn babies in rural Umerkot, Pakistan. Trained 6 months ago under a government initiative, the mother of five visits 5 homes a day on average in a cluster of 1,000 households in a bid to educate women in a region where few have any access to health care. Alixandra Fazzina / Save the Children

FAZZINA_L1002936Najma, mother of 4, sits on her bed with her newborn girl Sadaf. Doctors were skeptical that Sadaf would survive after being sick during her first days of life. Lady Health Worker Hoormat is now visiting to discuss Sadaf's vaccinations under the new government women's health programme. Alixandra Fazzina / Save the Children

12319_8ca471a3de56bef_0Wafa, six days, being held by her aunt Malkha in Rawalpindi general hospital, Islamabad, Pakistan. Her mother was too ill to bring her new daughter to the hospital. She has been admitted for diarrhoea, and has been bottle fed since she was born. Madhuri Dass / Save the Children

RS23705_L1015656 revAt just one hour old, baby Hakimullah is comforted by his mother-in-law at the Family Health Centre in Meelam refugee camp. The Centre now delivers between 200 and 250 babies a month drastically cutting the rates of maternal and infant mortality. Alixandra Fazzina / Save the Children

RS25934_JT.Pakistan.13AUG10.043Saphia bibi (left), nine-months pregnant, with her cousin Sumia who has given birth to a baby boy in their home in the village of Shlar, Muzzafargarh, Pakistan. Jason Tanner / Save the Children

A recent study published by The Lancet suggests that Pakistan’s Lady Health Workers — women trained as part of a government program to give care to poor people in rural areas — can make a difference in saving the lives of newborns.

The research trial required no new technology and relied solely on introducing counseling and educational outreach on proven newborn health practices into Pakistan’s public health system in the rural district of Hala.

As a result, newborn mortality and stillbirths there dropped 15-20 percent, more mothers gave birth in facilities and newborn care practices improved substantially. The 2-year research trial ran from 2006-08 and differed from previous newborn care studies because researchers worked through a large public sector program and hired no new health workers.