BY ALLISON KOZICHAROW; EDITED BY BERNICE BORN
Being healthy at birth is crucial to a healthy life. Yet, the World Health Organization (WHO) states that during the first 28 days of life, a child is at highest risk of dying. Moreover, this risk is more than six times higher in Africa than it is in Europe.
It is vital, therefore, that appropriate feeding and care are provided during this period, both to improve the child’s chances of survival and to lay the foundations for a healthy life.
In response to the need to improve infant care, WiRED International just launched a module on infant health into its Health Learning Center. The module is in the Becoming a Parent section of WiRED’s 24-part Mother and Child Health Series.
WiRED’s Infant Health Module presents key facts about newborns and information on infant mortality, infant care, immunizations, tests and screenings and skilled care at birth and afterwards at home.
Children who die within the first 28 days of birth often suffer from conditions and diseases associated with lack of quality care at birth or skilled care and treatment immediately after birth. The main killers of children under age five in 2016 included preterm birth complications, pneumonia, intrapartum related events, diarrhea, neonatal sepsis and malaria.
Many of these deaths occurred in babies born too early and too small, in babies with infections, or in babies who asphyxiated around the time of delivery (that is, newborns who do not start breathing on their own by one minute after birth). Labor, birth and the immediate postnatal period are the most critical for newborn and maternal survival.
WiRED believes that health education will strengthen strategies to prevent infant mortality and to ensure a healthy life for every newborn. Reading WiRED’s Infant Health Module is a good place to start.
You can download the module in this story, and all 400+ of our health modules, through WiRED’s Health Module Access Program (HealthMAP) by clicking here. This completely free program will enable you to create your own customized library of health education training modules. You can learn more about HealthMAP through WiRED's animation.
WiRED’s Mother and Child Health Series
WiRED’s Mother and Child Health Series provides a 24-part comprehensive training program to assist families, caregivers, community health workers and others with subjects related to the following four topics: Before Pregnancy, Pregnant Now, Labor and Delivery, and Parenting. The Mother and Child Health series will be used by schools, clinics and hospitals and nongovernmental organizations that help families prepare for a healthy pregnancy, delivery and the years of childhood up to age five.
WiRED embraces WHO’s maternal, newborn and child health principle, “Continuum of Care,” in which skilled care during pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period prevents complications and allows for their early detection and appropriate management.
