Safely transferring sick newborns to health facilities with the level of complexity required to treat their condition contributes to the reduction of neonatal morbidity and mortality rates. Reducing these rates is essential to achieve the global goals for child survival in the coming decades. Efforts to prevent the main causes of neonatal mortality must be complemented by the development of systems to care for sick newborns, including safe neonatal transport.
Neonatal mortality accounts for more than 40% of deaths among children under 5 years of age worldwide. The main causes are prematurity, asphyxia, severe infections, and congenital defects. In developing countries, many births occur in rural areas, often at home. There are often few specialized neonatal units, transportation facilities are limited, and transport routes are challenging and slow.
Neonatal transport services need to be established to provide newborns with equitable and widespread access to high-quality health care during their first month of life. The outcome of transferred newborns can be easily improved by focusing on basic physiologic stability issues. Specific training in patient assessment and management can improve outcomes, but must go hand in hand with the changes required in the systems (regionalization), including appropriate equipment, standards and supervision.
