A team of U.S. researchers has devised a training program for midwives, nurses, doctors, and birth attendants that can save one in every three babies from a stillbirth.

The training includes simple techniques of helping the newborn start breathing and keeping it snug and clean can help in slashing the increasing rate of stillbirths in developing and poor countries of the world.

Dr Waldemar Carlo and his contemporaries from the Division of Neonatology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham initiated the present study that was funded by grants from the U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

“Approximately 38 percent of deaths among children younger than 5 years of age occur during the first 28 days of life, and 75 percent of the neonatal deaths occur within the first seven days,” informs lead author, Dr Waldemar Carlo.

Study methods
The research team carried out the Essential Newborn Care training, a three day program that taught the local health workers how to prevent stillbirths at the neonatal stage. These workers further taught the technique to their co-workers. In all, 3600 health workers received the training.

A total of 1,20,000 births were tracked by the researchers from Argentina, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guatemala, India, Pakistan, and Zambia.

The study found that the rate of stillbirths decreased by more than 30 percent after the program.
The researchers reported that the stillbirths declined to 16 per every 1000 cases from 23 per 1000 cases.

Dr Carlo says, “This is a very large reduction in mortality. The reduction in stillbirth is extremely encouraging. We think this is a major breakthrough because up to now it had been thought it would be extremely difficult to train so many healthcare providers.”

“If implemented worldwide, such an intervention could markedly reduce prenatal mortality,” he adds.

Breakthrough findings
Experts believe that many babies do not automatically start breathing at birth and they need a stimulation to take a breath.

Some breathe after their back is rubbed or when sole of the feet is tapped while others need air pumps that can push air into their lungs.

The study found that chances of a stillbirth decreased when the delivery was handled by trained attendants.
Dr Alan E Guttmacher, acting director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) states, “These findings suggest that a low-cost instructional regimen for birth attendants can be effective in reducing stillbirths in parts of the world where most births are not attended by a physician,”

The research was documented in the New England Journal of Medicine with the title, ‘Newborn-Care Training and Prenatal Mortality in Developing Countries’.