Essential Newborn Care And Respectful Maternity Care

Overview

Course Description

Essential Newborn Care is a continuum of care in midwifery practice. The course is designed to help midwives develop the right skill and attitude of rendering essential newborn care respectfully. Barriers to the provision of essential new born care respectfully identified by midwives in their respective facilities will be addressed using the Midwifery Service Framework.
Currently in Ghana, neonatal mortality rate has decreased by 14% from 29 per 1000 live births in 2014 to 25 per 1000 by 2017. However, the figure still falls short of the target set by United Nations to reduce neonatal mortality to 12 per 1000 live births by 2030. (Atlas for Africa Health Statistics 2018).

In August 2019, the Ministry of health and Ghana Health Service launched a two strategic document to scale up the interventions at reducing neonatal mortalities in Ghana. These strategic documents are, The National Newborn Health Strategy and Child Health Standards and Strategy. These Strategic documents are to augment the country’s efforts to provide quality care for children and newborns to help achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

The document by the MOH and GHS outlined Basic Essential Newborn Care as the first key strategy for newborn care.
Other areas outlined were:
• Management of adverse intrapartum events including birth asphyxia
• Care of the preterm/low birth weight/growth-restricted babies
• Management of neonatal infections/sick newborns.

What you will learn

By the end of the course, each participant will be able to:
a. Define Essential Newborn Care.
b. Outline the components of Essential Newborn Care.
c. Build competencies (Knowledge,Skills and Attitude) in rendering Essential Newborn Care
d. Identify disrespectful cares in providing Essential Newborn Care and its implications.
e. Outline measures to mitigate disrespectful cares when providing Essential Newborn Care.

Competencies to be derived
By the end of the course participants will:

Knowledge
1. Know how to preparing for birth
2. Learn about provision of warmth to the newborn
3. Know how to assess for breathing
4. Understand initiation of breastfeeding
5. Learn about provision of cares aimed at preventing diseases in the newborn
6. Know how examine and classify a newborn

Skills : Hands on demonstrations with dummies on,
1. Preparing for birth
2. Recognition of a baby not breathing and helping baby to breath within the Golden minute
3. Weighing and Examination of the newborn.
4. Giving parents guidance for home care

Attitude
7. Recognize ways of rendering essential newborn care respectfully.