5 December - From 20 to 24 November, 38 pediatricians, neonatologists, obstetricians, midwives and nurses gathered in Saad Abu Ele’la Hospital to receive training on early essential newborn care from several WHO experts from different parts of the world.

WHO experts on newborn care, including Dr Howard Sobel, WHO expert from the Regional Office for the Western Pacific, Dr Ornella Lincetto from WHO’s headquarters in Geneva, Nashwa Skaik, Dr Jamela Al Raiby and Dr Kahled Siddeeg from WHO’s Regional Office in Cairo, guided the participants through various exercises. Among other things, the health workers learned how to practise immediate newborn care to both breathing and non-breathing newborns, and to practise these same skills for every delivery. The final objective for the participants is to use their new knowledge to bring down the neonatal mortality rate.

The WHO Representative for Sudan, Dr Naeema Al Gasseer, commented: “Going ‘back to basics’ for things like hygiene, hand washing, keeping the newborn close to the mother’s skin and beginning breastfeeding immediately, can save many newborns. Before turning to high-tech high-cost interventions, just getting all the basics right makes all the difference.”

Going forward, WHO, Sudan’s Health Ministry and the Hospital Management Team will continue making improvements in both physical resources like rearranging the labour room, and knowledge resources by scaling up the training to cover all relevant staff from the Saad Abu Ele’la Hospital, as well as for other selected hospitals.