We know that the quality of care available for women needs to improve. That’s why Save the Children has identified this agenda based around essential interventions around birth, that a properly-skilled midwife or trained healthworker can deliver to save newborn lives.
Being based in London can often mean that I feel unable to participate properly in the daily work of the E4A team in Tanzania. At other times, however, being in London certainly has its benefits for bringing people together in the drive for maternal and newborn survival.Yesterday saw the launch of the new Save the Children campaign, and the publication of their report
Ending Newborn Deaths.To coincide with the launch, Save the Children organised an afternoon of thoughtful discussion around the new report, and also to consolidate feedback for the Every Newborn Action Plan.I was sat on a table with experts from a spectrum of health fields and global interests (nutrition, Afghanistan, international midwifery, Philippines, disaster emergency care, to name a few) and we all wanted to work together to save newborn lives across the world!I was really pleased to see that the report drew such much-needed attention to:
- the systematic inequality of newborn mortality
- how newborn death unequally affects the poorest (read about this on page 4), and rural populations (on page 5)
- that it is important to unpack these problems and find solutions to the social determinants of newborn health (go to page 14)
Save the Children is calling for all governments to remove user fees for maternal, newborn, and child health services, including emergency obstetric care. We know that Tanzania has already legislated free maternal and newborn care, but we need to make sure that women and families are actually receiving it without having to
pay out-of-pocket expenses.
One study found that 91% of Tanzanian women had made some form of payment for their maternity care.We also know that the
quality of care available for women needs to improve.That’s why
Save the Children has identified this agenda based around essential interventions around birth, that a properly-skilled midwife or trained healthworker can deliver to save newborn lives.Building on this latest report, we spent the afternoon working in groups to make recommendations for improving the draft Every Newborn Action Plan.We felt that it was important to emphasise the role of
good disaggregated data so that vulnerable groups can be identified and targeted with resources, the need for
accountability mechanisms at all levels especially for the community, and we welcomed the inclusion of indicators that look at the
general water and sanitation provision in health facilities.We shall have to wait and see whether the Every Newborn Action Plan gets formal agreement at the World Health Assembly in May. But it was great to be able to share my experience and understanding of the newborn situation in Tanzania, and have it recognised and incorporated into the draft of the plan!There's still time (just) to
tell us what you think of the Plan. Hurry hurry and help us put newborns at the top of the agenda!
