years
LATIN AMERICAN CENTER FOR PERINATOLOGY
WOMEN AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH · CLAP/WR
Neonatal Health
More than 10 million children are born in Latin America and
the Caribbean every year. Despite major progress in reducing
neonatal mortality in the Region, about 100,000 neonatal
deaths are recorded every year. Rates vary from around 4 per
1,000 live births to nearly 30 per 1,000. Over half of deaths of
children under 5 years of age occur in the first 28 days of life.
The neonatal period offers a window of opportunity to prevent
conditions that can potentially affect health and quality of life
in later stages.
The Regional Strategy and Plan of
Action for Neonatal Health within
the Continuum of Maternal, Newborn, and Child Care was approved
by the Pan American Health Organization’s 48th Directing Council in
2008. The Strategy and Plan of Action focuses on promoting a suitable environment for neonatal health in terms of policies, planning
and strengthening of health services, community-based interventions, and monitoring and evaluation in the countries of the
Region of the Americas.
Among its strategic objectives, the
“Every Newborn” global action
plan, approved by the 67th World
Health Assembly in 2014, seeks to
strengthen and invest in care during labor, birth, and the first day
and week of life; improve the quality
of maternal and newborn care; advance towards universal health coverage and reduce inequities; and
strengthen measurement, program-tracking, and accountability.
nical cooperation plans is another priority, in view of regional
commitments and the situations identified in national plans.
At both the regional and country level, strengthening partnerships has proven to be fundamental for implementation of
the plan, making the problem more visible and favoring advocacy aimed at addressing it. These partnerships involve key
actors, such as scientific and professional societies, cooperation agencies, NGOs, and civil society; led by the ministries
of health, they work jointly toward fulfilling national plans
and commitments. Together with the Latin American and Caribbean Newborn Health Alliance (CLAP is currently acting
as its Technical Secretariat), CLAP is committed to this work
and to strengthening already established partnerships and
promoting new ones.
CLAP works in ongoing coordination with
key actors in the area of neonatal health,
including:
1. Latin America and Caribbean Newborn Health
Alliance
2. Collaborating Centers:
Colorado School of Public Health
Center for Global Health
Universidad Maimónides, Department of
Maternal and Child Health
March of Dimes
Outcome indicators included in the Regional Strategy
and Plan of Action for Neonatal Health
• Perinatal mortality rate per 1000 live births
• Fetal mortality rate per 1000 live births
• Neonatal case fatality rate in hospitals
• Early neonatal mortality rate (0-6 days) per 1000 live births
In line with global and regional guidelines, and given the current state of neonatal health, CLAP is committed to a set of
actions and strategies aimed at responding to the main challenges.
• Late neonatal mortality rate (7-28 days) per 1000 live births
Strengthening and promoting the neonatal components of
public agendas are among CLAP’s key activities. Updating
country profiles is a key component of technical cooperation,
making it possible to assess the state of neonatal health,
mortality, inequities, and inequalities. Updating current tech-
• Gestational age-specific neonatal mortality
• Neonatal mortality rate (0-28 days) per 1000 live births
• Cause-specific neonatal mortality
• Birthweight-specific neonatal mortality
• Prevalence of low birthweight
Find more information
• www.paho.org/clap
years
LATIN AMERICAN CENTER FOR PERINATOLOGY
WOMEN AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH · CLAP/WR
Neonatal Health
Another key area of CLAP’s work is raising awareness of the
specific conditions that affect health and quality of life, and
promoting specific interventions. Conditions related to prematurity, congenital malformations, sepsis, infections, and
asphyxia are the leading causes of death; in all cases, improving quality of care is key. Accordingly, CLAP promotes and
provides technical cooperation (both directly and through
partners of the Neonatal Alliance and Collaborating Centers), as well as human resources training in neonatal resuscitation, essential newborn care, and infection prevention
and control.
In terms of lending visibility to particular conditions, CLAP
promotes and provides technical cooperation for World Prematurity Day on 17 November ; and for the first time, CLAP
and other stakeholders promoted World Birth Defects Day,
held on 3 March.
Preparing specific technical documents and guidelines on
these subjects is another of CLAP’s main activities. “Neonatal IMCI: Evidence-based Interventions” has been promoted
for use and adaptation, and three new documents have been
published: guidelines to address and prevent errors in newborn care; a systematic review of neonatal transport; and a
manual for the prevention of health care-related infections in
neonatology.
CLAP promotes the strengthening of information and surveillance systems for neonatal health, mainly in the context of
the Perinatal Information System (SIP). A technical meeting
was held in 2015 to discuss and update the neonatal component of SIP. Numerous past and current studies based on SIP
have been referenced in scientific publications. By taking a
continuum-of-care approach and relying on SIP and other
instruments, technical cooperation is provided to strengthen
national surveillance systems and monitor neonatal deaths.
In order to obtain information that leads to action, two surveys were conducted to support the construction of a regional
map of legislation and programs on neonatal screening of
metabolic and sensorial conditions, and another map of programs for the prevention and treatment of retinopathy of prematurity.
An instrument was also developed to assess the implementation of health care interventions that have proven to be efficacious in reducing neonatal mortality and morbidity, focusing on the practices with the greatest impact on neonatal
health.
Finally, given that reducing inequities is an important challenge in the Region, CLAP actively participates in the “A Promise Renewed for the Americas” movement.
Technical Documents
• Pan American Health Organization. 48th Directing Council, Washington, 2008. Regional Strategy and Plan of Action for
Neonatal Health within the Continuum of Maternal, Newborn, and Child Care. Washington: PAHO, 2008.
http://bit.ly/1eDOTc8
• World Health Organization. 67th World Health Assembly. Geneva 2014. Every newborn: an action plan to end
preventable deaths. Geneva: WHO, 2014.
http://bit.ly/1FBVgln
• World Health Organization. 67th World Health Assembly. Geneva 2014. Every newborn: Executive Summary. Geneva:
WHO, 2014.
http://bit.ly/1sFqfg4