Every two minutes, a newborn dies in WHO’s Western Pacific Region. In response, the World Health Organization (WHO) is launching a new social media campaign to raise awareness of the ‘First Embrace’ – the skin-to-skin contact between mother and baby immediately after birth.
“More than 150,000 newborns die every year across China. This is 150,000 newborn deaths too many. As many as two-thirds of the deaths could be prevented using simple, low-cost interventions, including the First Embrace”, said Dr Bernhard Schwartländer, WHO Representative in China.
There is compelling evidence to show that a basic, but highly effective, way to prevent many newborn deaths is through ensuring sustained skin-to-skin contact between mother and baby straight after birth – as part of a wider package of measures called Early Essential Newborn Care (EENC).
To promote the First Embrace and the importance of EENC, WHO will begin a new awareness campaign this week via the micro-blogging platform Weibo. The online campaign aims to engage parents-to-be and health professionals in a conversation about the importance of newborn health and the effectiveness of the First Embrace approach. For health professionals, the campaign seeks to inform them of the benefits of EENC and encourage them to promote and adapt it. At the same time, the campaign speaks to expectant parents, encouraging them to know more about EENC and talk to their health provider ahead of the birth of their baby.
“The First Embrace is a simple act of love which can save a baby’s life. It is also the first step in building the special bond between mother and child that will last a lifetime. And we have found that it has been clinically proven to work in improving health outcomes for newborn babies – time and time again, in different situations and different countries,” Dr Schwartländer said.
The First Embrace approach is central to the package of Early Essential Newborn Care interventions which WHO has developed to help reduce newborn deaths across the Western Pacific region. This package of measures focuses on the critical first 24 hours of a child's life – the period which is responsible for almost half of all deaths within the first month of life.
“While China has made incredible progress in reducing maternal and infant deaths in the last two decades, the benefits of this progress have not been shared evenly. Just last week, new research was published which shows that child and maternal health outcomes in Shanghai rival those in the USA and Canada; in other parts of China, the statistics look more like those of poor countries such as Bangladesh,” Dr Schwartländer said.
“The First Embrace approach, as part of a comprehensive approach to strengthening Early Essential Newborn Care, can help to bridge the gap,” Dr Schwartländer concluded.
As part of the #FirstEmbrace campaign, WHO will be posting information about the First Embrace campaign and Early Essential Newborn Care, as well as hosting online Q&A sessions on maternity and newborn nursing with Chinese and international experts.
About the World Health Organization
WHO is the directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations system. It is responsible for providing leadership on global health matters, shaping the health research agenda, setting norms and standards, articulating evidence-based policy options, providing technical support to countries and monitoring and assessing health trends.