Saving Newborns in Uganda

Uganda

State of Uganda's Newborns

Issues Influencing Newborn Health in Uganda

During the past two decades, there has been no significant decline in neonatal mortality in Uganda . Nearly 120 newborns die in Uganda each day, placing it among the ten countries with the highest numbers of newborn deaths in Africa.[i] Most of Uganda ’s newborn deaths are caused by infections, birth asphyxia and complications of prematurity. Although child health programs like Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) are present in virtually all districts throughout Uganda , services still struggle to reach mothers and newborns during the critical postnatal period.

With a population of nearly 28 million—more than 87 percent of whom live in rural areas—it is difficult to reach the estimated 58 percent of women who give birth at home. An important underlying cause of newborn death is poor access and utilization of health services due to perceived poor quality of services, lack of transport and costs associated with accessing care.

Save the Children’s Current Activities in Uganda

Save the Children’s Saving Newborn Lives program in Uganda recently conducted a situation analysis of newborn health in Uganda . The situation analysis analyzes the status of newborn health and identifies unmet needs at the health facility, community and household levels for improving newborn health within a continuum of care. Uganda ’s Health Sector Strategic Plan, currently in its second phase, will use the results of the situation analysis to inform planning for interventions and approaches to newborn health.

In addition, Save the Children has been advocating for:

The provision of community-based care to newborns during the first week of life.
Shifting of tasks for management of the sick newborn to lower level health facilities.
The integration of newborn health into the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI).
The scale-up of Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) to manage preterm/low birth weight newborns.

Building on the success of KMC in the Mulago Hospital neonatal unit, Save the Children and American Idol Gives Back is supporting the expansion of Kangaroo Mother Care in four additional districts of Kayunga, Luweero, Nakaseke and Nakasongola, and will work with partners to see it adopted in other districts.

Through Save the Children, Makerere University ( Uganda ) and Karolinska Institute ( Sweden ) are developing an approach for provision of community-based newborn care package, which will be implemented by volunteers linked to the Ministry of Health Village Health Teams. The package in the study will be evaluated in the Iganga National Demographic Surveillance Site.