Quality Care of Newborns

Bangladesh, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda on Tuesday pledged to halve preventable deaths of newborns in their health facilities within the next five years. Through a new Network for Improving Quality of Care for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, supported by the World Health Organization, UNICEF and other partners, the 9 countries will work to improve the quality of care mothers and babies receive in their health facilities, the WHO website reported. 

Countries will do that by strengthening capacity and motivation of health professionals to plan and manage quality improvement, improving data collection and increasing access to medicines, equipment and clean water. Every year, 2.7 million babies die during the first 28 days of life and 2.6 million babies are stillborn and most of the cases occur in these countries.