An estimated 15 million babies are born too early every year. That is more than 1 in 10 babies. Approximately 1 million children die each year due to complications of preterm birth. Many surviving babies face a lifetime of disability, including learning disabilities and visual and hearing problems.
On World Prematurity Day 2022, 17th November 2022, The Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing, World Health Organization Geneva launched new recommendations based on new evidence that has emerged that can improve the care of preterm or low birth weight babies. There are 25 recommendations which substantially expand the ‘what’, ‘where’ and ‘how’ for improving the survival, health and well-being of preterm and low birth weight babies. This includes kangaroo mother care and involving families in the care of their babies right from the time of birth.
At the launch event, expert speakers presented the recommendations. They also discussed the evidence that underpins them, their potential impact, implementation challenges, and what the recommendations mean for families and services.
The recommendations in this guideline are intended to inform development of national and subnational health policies, clinical protocols and programmatic guides. The target audience includes national and subnational public health policy-makers, implementers and managers of maternal, newborn and child health programmes, health-care facility managers, supervisors/instructors for in-service training, health workers (including midwives, auxiliary nurse-midwives, nurses, paediatricians, neonatologists, general medical practitioners and community health workers), nongovernmental organizations, professional societies involved in the planning and management of maternal, newborn and child health services, academic staff involved in research and in the pre-service education and training of health workers, and those involved in the education of parents.
Web supplement – Evidence base
Please click on the link below to access the recording and presentation.
Access the recording here
Access the power point presentation here