Improving maternal and newborn healthcare services in Yen Bai

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in partnership with Save the Children announced the joint healthcare project of US$356,000 over three years in the northern mountainous province of Yen Bai.

The project aims at enhancing healthcare services for mothers and newborns in ethnic minorities, hence minimising the mortality rates in this province.

“Improving access to healthcare is a priority for GSK. To fulfill this vision, GSK together with partners, is working to implement innovative, replicable and sustainable solutions,” James Strenner, chief representative of GSK Pte Ltd in Vietnam said. “The Maternal and Newborn Care project, delivered by Save the Children and agencies, demonstrates the ceaseless efforts of these organizations to help save the lives of more mothers and children, especially those living in remote areas of Vietnam.”

Research conducted by Save the Children in 2014 in six communes of the province’s Tram Tau district shows that up to 91 per cent of women gave birth at home without skilled birth attendance. This is in contrast to a survey by MCIS Vietnam in the same year, which stated that, in the last two years, 93.8 per cent of national births were attended by skilled health personnel. This area is therefore being left behind from progress that is being made nationally.

The reasons behind this disparity include a lack of utilities and healthcare services, as well as limited knowledge about maternal and newborn health practices of people in the remote areas, especially those in the central highlands and northen Delta, including Yen Bai.

In response to this challenge, Save the Children has been working with the Ministry of Health since 2013 and also three Vietnamese medical universities to implement a maternal and newborn child health project using the Household to Hospital Continuum of Care (HHCC) approach. This project is carried out in three provinces of Yen Bai, Dak Lak and Ca Mau.

Through integrating community outreach and effective referral, the provision of essential equipment and supplies, and strengthening the capacity of facility-based staff through training, there has been an increase in the use and quality of maternal and newborn health services amongst ethnic minority populations. Now, with the support from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Save the Children will be able to build on the success of this project to further increase demand and utilisation of basic maternal and newborn care services.

 “In Viet Nam, about 18,000 newborn babies die every year. This situation is even more serious in remote areas where it is hard to have advanced health conditions. In fact, most cases in newborn mortality can be interfered by very simple methods such as expertise support from the medical staff and healthcare services when mothers give birth and educating them with basic knowledge on newborn care,” said Dragana Strinic, country director of Save the Children Vietnam. “It is the reason why the project saving children’s lives in vulnerable communities with the goal of improving healthcare quality and raising awareness of maternal and newborn care is considered as a practical method that helps reducing mortality rate in newborns and ensuring each child coming to the world are all safe and heatlthy.”

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