Campaigners encourage Bangladesh government to invest more in women, newborn care for ‘triple return’

Campaigners on the World Prematurity Day have urged Bangladesh government to invest more in women and newborn care to prevent deaths and disabilities.

Bangladesh has been successful in cutting both maternal and child deaths under the MDGs targets, but newborn deaths make up about 60 percent of all under-five mortality.

Premature birth is one of the reasons for newborn deaths with statistics showing 14 percent babies are born before the normal 37 weeks of gestation in Bangladesh.

Many premature babies, being less immune to diseases, succumb to infections or suffer short- to long-term complications.

“Up to 75 percent deaths of preterm babies are preventable,” said Dr Ziaul Matin, Health Specialist of Unicef, at a seminar on Tuesday, marking the Day.

He suggested investments both in quality of care and increasing coverage of care for women and their babies.

“This (investment) can bring a triple return – preventing 54 percent of maternal deaths, 71 percent of newborn deaths and 33 percent of stillbirths.”

Save the Children, USAID, Unicef, World Health Organisation, icddr,b, Bangladesh Neonatal Forum (BNF), and Maternal and Child Health Integrated Programme (MCHIP) were among the co-organisers of the seminar.

They stressed on kangaroo care for preventing preterm deaths as the government plans to introduce this approach of mothers carrying babies skin-to-skin across health facilities.

Save the Children Bangladesh’s Saving Newborn Lives Project Director Sayed Rubayet said there were four proven cost-effective interventions to save preterm babies, including the kangaroo care.

Bangladesh is currently practising all those methods, except the kangaroo care.

The USAID-supported projects are piloting the approach in some districts, while the government is preparing guidelines to scale it up across Bangladesh.

The neonatology departments at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) and Dhaka Shishu Hospital are practising kangaroo care.

But Dr Matin, the Unicef health specialist, suggested the government learn lessons and best practices from other countries as there were “some barriers” to promote kangaroo care.

Premature babies die because of three reasons – low body temperature, failure to suck breast milk, and infection.