UNICEF aids replication of life-saving interventions in Vietnam
Every year, it is estimated that 15 million babies are born prematurely worldwide. In Vietnam, infant deaths account for 60% of all deaths among children under one year old.
Hanoi (VNA) - 🅘The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Vietnam has worked with the Ministry of Health to scale up newborn life-saving interventions across the country for years.
This collaboration focuses on the rural and mountainous provinces in the North and Central Highlands, where many ethnic populations live and where worryingly high neonatal mortality rates persist.
Maharajan Muthu, UNICEF Vietnam Chief of Child Survival, Development and Environmental Programme, said: “Our focus is on saving newborn lives, ensuring life-saving interventions are practised in all corners of Vietnam. To achieve this, we support the health sector to develop national action plans on children’s healthcare and scale up interventions to reduce child mortality.”
This approach includes working on guidelines on newborn and preterm/low birth weight infant care, training health workers and community workers on international best practices in this area, and reaching families and communities with relevant information about the care and nutrition of newborns and premature babies.
According to Muthu, cost-effective interventions to save newborns include immediate skin-to-skin contact, early breastfeeding initiation for newborns, and early and exclusive breastfeeding. It is equally important to ensure that babies born too soon, too small or too sick if needed have equitable and quick access to higher levels of hospital care, irrespective of where they are born.
As reported by the Maternal and Child Health Department under the Ministry of Health, around 100,000 babies in seven provinces have benefited from UNICEF-supported programmes that offered early essential newborn care and Kangaroo Mother Care this year, said Muthu.
Kangaroo Mother Care is a simple, free action taken immediately after birth to place the baby in the mother’s and later the father’s arms with skin-to-skin contact, which has extraordinary physical and mental health advantages for the baby and parents. This method is crucial in caring for preterm or low birth-weight infants through continuous and prolonged skin-to-skin contact with a parent. Benefits of the method include a reduced risk of neonatal mortality by 40%, improved thermal regulation, infection prevention, breastmilk let-down, and facilitation of physiological, behavioural, psychosocial, and neurodevelopmental effects.
On World Prematurity Day 2022 (November 17), UNICEF promotes the method under the theme of “A Parent’s embrace: a powerful therapy. Enable skin-to-skin contact from the moment of birth.”
The day is considered an opportunity to raise awareness of preterm birth challenges and shine a light on the risks and impacts faced by preterm infants and their families. Preterm birth is the leading cause of death among children under five. Every year an estimated 15 million babies (about 1 in 10 children) are born prematurely worldwide. Vietnam reports around 60% of infant deaths as neonatal deaths.
As in previous years, World Prematurity Day activities are being carried out in about 100 countries this week to raise awareness and spur action to prevent preterm birth where possible, improve healthcare systems, and save babies’ lives.
In Vietnam, a special event is set to be organised in Ho Chi Minh City to honour and recognise the contributions of health workers in newborn care as well as to raise awareness of the challenges surrounding preterm birth. The event is a part of Kimberly-Clark and UNICEF’s project to support the scale-up by the Ministry of Health of newborn care interventions to save the lives of many more newborns in Vietnam./.
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell praised Vietnam’s child protection and care achievements during a three-day visit to Vietnam in November.
UNICEF Vietnam cited Russell as saying that over the past decades, Vietnam has made great strides in ensuring that children nationwide are healthy and safe, able to access education, and given favourable conditions to tap into their potential fully.
She said UNICEF would continue cooperating with the Vietnamese Government and partners so that all children, especially the most vulnerable, can access necessary services and assistance.
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Illustrative photo (Source: VNA)
