Business World Features Safe Care, Saving Lives

Indian business magazine Business World recently published an indepth article on the Safe Care, Saving Lives program and its efforts to reduce newborn deaths in India. Of the 2.7 million neonatal deaths that occurred globally in 2015, one third occurred in India. The article highlights the work being done by ACCESS Health International in partnership with the governments of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to improve the quality of maternal and newborn care to help reduce neonatal and perinatal mortality. Read an excerpt from the article below or the full article by clicking here.

 

All parents dream of a better future for their newborn children. Unfortunately, many realize that the first sixty seconds after the birth of a baby in the labor room has a substantial influence on the realization of these dreams only after the damage is done. For babies who have a delayed cry after birth, the first golden minute of resuscitation after delivery makes all the difference between a healthy newborn or a case of birth asphyxia.

Birth asphyxia can lead to long term disabilities that include seizures, cerebral palsy, and neurodevelopmental delays in the child. The debates around possible solutions are endless, but the hospitals working under the Safe Care, Saving Lives program are showing how empowered facilities can devise novel yet simple ways of addressing this “do” gap in their facilities, the gap between knowing what to do and actually doing it.