Trust Africa News, By Ayomide Otitoju
Nigeria has one of the highest infant and neonatal death rates in the world. In a strong push to effect needed change, participants at the maiden Obijackson Women and Children Hospital (OWCH) funded Newborn Respiratory Support Workshop have called for immediate and broad adoption of a national neonatal respiratory support policy and plan in Nigeria.
The newborn healthcare practitioners in attendance included doctors and nurses from the South-East and South-South regions of the country. The policy adoption they advocated for would drastically reduce neonatal mortality and morbidity responsible for 59.1 deaths per 1000 live births in infants before the age of 1 year and over 35 per 1000 livebirths for newborn deaths in the country.
The OWCH Head of Hospital Services, Dr Ikechukwu Okonkwo, the lead knowledge expert at the workshop, expressed sadness that most of the neonatal deaths are from preventable causes. Improving respiratory support for our most vulnerable population will significantly impact the three leading causes of neonatal and infant deaths; preterm birth, intra partum related events (previously called perinatal asphyxia) and infections which are all accompanied by degrees of breathing difficulties.
Dr Okonkwo said the newborn respiratory support workshop was conceptualized in collaboration with our national and international partners to train medical practitioners on how to save babies lives. It provided evidence based, state of the art hands-on training and practical knowledge to participants in various aspects of newborn and infant care including specialized transport of the critically ill baby. He added that unfortunately, only one out of every three babies are currently delivered in a healthcare facility, greatly decreasing the survival chances of the mother and newborn.
He revealed that available data and modelsshow that for any country to have less than 35 deaths per 1000 births, a national policy on newborn respiratory support is key. This is why this group of professionals enjoined the government to focus on the issue and make it a national policy, to save more babies.
He said, “These three major causes of neonatal mortality accounting for 85 percent of deaths were covered extensively in this comprehensive workshop. This high-level skill acquisition training addressed the healthcare system from top to bottom.
“We have consultants, doctors and nurses here to learn new ways to save babies, and afterwards they will teach others in their hospitals and medical facilities on how to care for the new born babies all with the goal of reducing neonatal mortality.”
This workshop which focused on capacity building and skills acquisition in providing respiratory support to newborn babies was subsidized by the Obijackson Foundation, funded by Dr. Ernest Azudialu-Obiejesi, whose tireless drive to support the reduction of neonatal death in the country has resulted in significantly improved health outcomes for newborns cared for at OWCH.
Neonatologist & Pediatrician at OWCH, Dr Chinelo Madueze, presented the topic “Newborn Resuscitation; Principles, Practice & Solution for LRS”. She reemphasized that a lot of neonatal deaths are due to intra-partum related events (previously called perinatal asphyxia). This results in respiratory failure, a situation where a newborn baby can neitherbreathenor cry at birth. She emphasised that the aim of the training was to better equip health care practitioners in evidence based neonatal resuscitation, especially in low resources centers. This will result in skilled attendants being available and ready to provide expert care to all babies at the time of birth and assist them in breathing.
‘’Ventilation of the lungs is the most important thing to do when babies are born.Obstetricians and other health care professionals present during childbirth mustbe able to help allnewborn babies who do not cry or breathe at birth to breathe within one minute of life to prevent irreversible brain damage and death. The knowledge and skills acquired from this workshop will help to reduce neonatal deaths nationally and globally’’, she added.
A participant, Dr. Ileli Sheila, from Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital, Edo State, said she came to the workshop to learn how she could do her part to make a difference and improve survival of Nigerian babies. ‘’The main reason why I came to this workshop is capacity building such that wherever the facilities are available for advance resuscitation, l can be part of those to use it to improve my community and reduce neonatal death’’, she stated.
The participants agreed that for Nigeria to significantly lower its neonatal mortality rate, the government must make more of the respiratory support workshop available in different States across the country; extend the reach of healthcare insurance to cover all citizens, and make healthcare affordable to all.
Obijackson Children’s Hospital, the first of its kind in the region since opening its doors has made significant improvements in maternal, neonatal and infant mortality with survival rates that are comparable to high income environments.
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