Every day, 200 babies die in Kenya within the first month of life.
This is according to a new study published in the Lancet Every Newborn Series that was analysed at the recently concluded 2014 Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH) conference in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The data showed that there are 33,000 still births and 40,000 neonatal (children below one month old) deaths that occur each year in the country.
However, the analysis also indicated that these largely preventable deaths can be dramatically reduced through simple and low cost interventions like breastfeeding, resuscitation of babies with breathing complications, and administration of antenatal steroids to pregnant women expecting premature children (babies born before nine months).
The report added that promoting the Kangaroo Mother Care approach, where women are encouraged to carry their newborn babies and make skin contact with them, can also reduce the deaths.
Experts noted that if these interventions were effectively implemented, Kenya could prevent 53,300 maternal and newborn deaths by 2025, making it the country with the eleventh highest number of lives that could be saved.
A new Landmark report titled Every Newborn Action Plan (ENAP) that was also launched at the conference outlines global strategies that will guide all nations in their effort to reduce infant deaths.
It cites Kenya as one of the 29 hot-spot countries that need to “pull up their socks” and double progress to meet the ENAP 2035 targets.
According to Dr Mickey Chopra, Unicef Chief of Health, skilled health workers that assist mothers during delivery are also essential to the prevention of newborn deaths.
“This is why it’s important for women to give birth in hospitals,” he said.
Only 44 per cent of pregnant women in Kenya deliver at health facilities based on government statistics.
In his recorded speech delivered at the PMNCH conference, Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations Secretary-General, noted that it is time to give newborns a more prominent place on the global health agenda.
“We must do much more to save millions that die each year,” he said during the high level conference.
The PMNCH is an alliance of more than 625 organisations dealing with reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health issues.
The partnership provides a platform for these organisations to share strategies and agree on interventions aimed at addressing existing problems.
