Summary
All newborns, especially those who are small and sick, need nurturing care to survive and thrive. Speakers presented effective interventions to promote development, including family-centered care and kangaroo mother care and provided examples of how health care providers and parents can work together to provide nurturing care. They also addressed the importance of screening and monitoring to identify children at risk, and the impact of investments in early childhood development on the human capital.
An example from Colombia will detail the benefits of kangaroo mother care on survival, neurodevelopment and the bonding between mother and infant.
The webinar also addressed the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on early childhood development and ways to support nurturing care during the outbreak.
The session was facilitated by Dr. Tedbabe Degefie Hailegebriel, Senior Adviser for Maternal and Newborn Health at UNICEF.
See also: session 1 of this webinar, on 17 June 10 am CEST
Additional resources
- UNICEF Care for Child Development: https://www.unicef.org/earlychildhood/files/4.CCD_-_Counselling_Cards.pdf
- Milestones in Action: https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/milestones/milestones-in-action.html?s_cid=AAP-MIA-PC6. (No permissions are needed to use the photos and images in this library for educational or awareness-building purposes).
- Text4baby: https://text4baby.org/, App with simple weekly messages through pregnancy and baby’s first year
- Training kit by the Kangaroo Foundation decided to put the training material in Spanish, English and French: https://www. fundacioncanguro.co
This is the fourth webinar in a series on Transforming care for small and sick newborns, organized by the World Health Organization and UNICEF, in collaboration with the Network for Improving Quality of Care for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health.
See the topics and dates of the whole series