Making a case for investing in small and sick newborn care, analyzing the patient journey to identify areas for investment
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This essay won a prize at the Newborn Toolkit/ ANA 2023 Essay Competition www.newborntoolkit.orgAbstract
Introduction
It is well recognised that the most vulnerable time of a child’s life is from the moment of birth to the end of the first 28 days of life1. Overall, globally, the Neonatal Mortality Rate is 18 per 1000 live births1however in Zambia it stands at 27 per 1000. Authors frequently highlight insufficient investment in neonatal care as one of the contributors2, however, any investment made needs to be targeted at interventions which have proven benefit, ideally low cost, high impact, easily reproducible, and easily able to be disseminated. Under the presumption that the global focus, under the sustainable development goal 3.2 to end preventable deaths of newborns3 already highlights the need for investment, if we consider the patient journey, particularly around the time of birth, we can identify some of these possible interventions as areas for investment and therefore improve outcomes.
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