The communities acted … but more actions needed to save our babies

I am imagining if I was a community volunteer in a rural setting, what kind of person would I be? Would I be a farmer as well, herder, a tailor? If I am lucky I would have had some secondary education but many are primary school educated.  But what’s exciting is that I would be more knowledgeable than many in my village because I am the first point of call when organisations need people to campaign against malaria, HIV and other diseases. Campaign for people to use family planning and even for safe motherhood and child care.Such is the calibre of community volunteers recruited to participate in a recently concluded study, Improving Newborn Survival in Southern Tanzania (INSIST). The advert placed in villages called for “women aged 20-40 years with full primary education.”Why community interventionIn a country that loses 40,000 babies each year, according to the Tanzania Countdown Case Study team, INSIST was initiated to implement what four Asian studies have reported, that home-based counselling could potentially achieve a 45% reduction in newborn deaths.So in 2010 an ‘army’ of over 800 volunteers went to work after five-day training. Armed with a training guide, work manual and a workbook to document appointments, home visits and where each mother delivered the volunteers covered six districts in Southern Tanzania. The volunteers made 3 visits to pregnant women, two visits after delivery and extra two low birth weight babies.Community intervention yielded results…. There was a general improvement in newborn care practices in areas visited. In 2013, according to the Joanna Schellenberg who was one of the researchers. They include:

• 41% of women  breast fed within an hour of birth compared to 35% in comparison areas
• 82% of births were in health facilities in intervention areas compared to 75% in comparison areas
• Newborn survival improved from 35 deaths per 1000 live births in 2004-7 to 31 per 1000 live births in 2010-2013.

…But more is needed to save our babiesHowever, “the newborn mortality rate was 32 in intervention area and 30 in comparison areas giving no evidence of any difference in survival between the intervention and comparison areas” according to the study.With such results, the researchers concluded that “Despite marked improvements in health facility delivery and in newborn care behaviours, newborn mortality remains high. Quality of childcare in health facilities must improve in order to reduce the burden of newborn death.” Read more about this study on Ifakara Health Institute websiteI am still imagining… with these results, if I was one of the community volunteers what would I do. I would Take action by urging local authorities to ensure our facilities provide life-saving  servicesAction for our mothersAction for our babies