Dear HIFA and CHIFA,
New research highlights risks of separating newborns from mothers during COVID-19 pandemic
Keeping mothers and babies together could save more than 125 000 lives: WHO
Extracts below. Full text here: https://www.who.int/news/item/16-03-2021-new-research-highlights-risks-o...
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16 March 2021 News release
New research from WHO and partners shows that the COVID-19 pandemic is severely affecting the quality of care given to small and sick newborns, resulting in unnecessary suffering and deaths.
[See full text of research here: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(21)00013-4/fulltext ]
A study published in the Lancet EclinicalMedicine highlights the critical importance of ensuring newborn babies have close contact with parents after birth, especially for those born too small (at low birthweight) or too soon (preterm). However, in many countries, if COVID-19 infections are confirmed or suspected, newborn babies are being routinely separated from their mothers, putting them at higher risk of death and lifelong health complications...
“Disruptions to essential health services during COVID-19 have severely affected the quality of care provided to some of the most vulnerable babies, and this includes their right to the lifesaving contact they need with their parents,” said Dr Anshu Banerjee, Director for Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing at WHO. “Decades of progress in reducing child deaths will be jeopardized unless we act now to protect and improve quality care services for mothers and newborns, and expand coverage of lifesaving interventions like kangaroo mother care.”
WHO advises that mothers should continue to share a room with their babies from birth and be able to breastfeed and practice skin-to-skin contact – even when COVID-19 infections are suspected or confirmed - and should be supported to ensure appropriate infection prevention practices...
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Best wishes, Neil
Coordinator, WHO-HIFA Collaboration: HIFA project on Essential Health Services and COVID-19
https://www.hifa.org/projects/essential-health-services-and-covid-19
Let's build a future where people are no longer dying for lack of healthcare information - Join HIFA: www.hifa.org
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of the HIFA global health movement (Healthcare Information For All - www.hifa.org ), a global community with more than 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting on six global forums in four languages in collaboration with WHO. Twitter: @hifa_org FB: facebook.com/HIFAdotORG neil@hifa.org
