USAID/BASICS Launches Technical Meeting Series on Newborn Resuscitation
March 25—On March 12, USAID/BASICS hosted Newborn Resuscitation: Strategies for Settings from the District Hospital to the Community. This event was the first in a USAID-sponsored series planned on birth asphyxia, which is one of the leading causes of mortality in the neonatal period.
Newborn Resuscitation: Strategies for Settings from the District Hospital to the Community was designed to help inform future directions in USAID-supported newborn resuscitation initiatives by reviewing the effectiveness of existing programs and the resources used to implement them, as well as gaps in knowledge and policies.
The meeting assembled participants from USAID's Global Bureau, Save the Children, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Institute of Child Health and Development, Boston University, PATH/Health Tech, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Latter-Day Saint Charities. Moreover, representation from Laerdal emphasized the role of public-private partnerships in newborn health programming.
Among presentations made on policy and program experiences and research findings, preliminary results were shared from first-time studies, including Boston University's Lufwanyama Neonatal Survival Project in Zambia and First Breath: a Multi-Center Trial of Neonatal Resuscitation in Developing Countries of the Global Network for Women's and Children's Health Research (NICHD).
The March 12 meeting will be followed by continued interaction of a core group of partners who will review issues identified by the participants, and plan subsequent activities to address them.