Our work in newborn health centers the mother-baby dyad and responds to the local context to help families thrive from pregnancy and birth through the first critical months of life. Globally, the leading causes of newborn death are infection (including sepsis/pneumonia, tetanus and diarrhea), preterm birth and asphyxia. Thus, much of FHI 360’s newborn health work focuses on community sensitization, equipping health care providers with the skills needed to provide essential and emergency newborn care, including in-patient care for small and sick newborns, and strengthening the health system to consistently deliver high-quality services. Our approaches align and integrate maternal and newborn services to keep the birthing parent and baby together and increase service accessibility.
FHI 360 works to provide lifesaving interventions for newborns and their families across a continuum of care. In collaboration with governments and funders, we partner with local organizations to design and implement solutions that strengthen health systems to deliver high-quality and patient-centered care. For example, the Maternal and Child Health and Nutrition Activity, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, is working with the Ministry of Health in Uganda to launch a national newborn situational analysis to identify critical gaps in newborn services and to support consensus-building and action around priority investments that will make the biggest impact on newborn survival and well-being. In Jordan, the Community Health and Nutrition project is putting in place a comprehensive social and behavior change strategy across multiple channels to increase household- and community-level knowledge of the importance of immediate breastfeeding after birth and exclusive breastfeeding until 6 months of age. The project is also implementing a social franchising model among providers to improve community-facility linkages.
We apply integrated approaches that draw on expertise across practice areas including infant and young child feeding; immunization; and water, sanitation and hygiene. As a national advisory group member in Uganda, FHI 360 takes part in the IMPULSE (IMProving qUaLity and uSE of newborn indicators) project to advance thinking on tools and methods to improve the availability, quality and use of newborn data. Our work strengthens health systems to improve government ownership and accountability, data quality and use, supply chain management, and quality of care.
