Health professional

As efforts to improve the outcomes of neonatal survival are scaled up, there is an increased demand for access to safe and effective transport.

Improving the procedures related to neonatal transport and the quality of care in critical conditions requires evidence-based technical guidelines as a reference for agencies, facilities, and health professionals responsible for setting health system priorities and policies around newborn transport.

Regionalization poses the challenge of defining where to assign resources to intensive care, transport or prevention and primary care.

Neonatal transport should be seen in the context of regionalized perinatal care, which encompasses the care of the pregnant woman and her fetus, the mother-to-be and her baby.

Interventions to support responsive caregiving during the postnatal period should focus on promoting positive interactions and strengthening the caregiver/infant relationship.

Health care workers should encourage mothers, fathers, and other caregivers to be aware and responsive, responding to the child's needs, cues, clues, behaviors, and desires.

It is important to encourage caregivers to develop skills in the contexts of play, communication and feeding, such as breastfeeding on demand.

Universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS) with otoacoustic emissions (OAE) or automated auditory brainstem evoked potentials (ABEP-A) testing is recommended for early detection of permanent bilateral hearing loss (PBHL). UNHS should be accompanied by diagnostic and treatment services for infants in whom hearing loss is detected.

It is important to close the gap in the possibilities that women have to breastfeed their children since breastfeeding can act as a factor of equality in society.

Human milk is the best nutrition for children at a time when the epigenetic foundations for health and development are being established. Everyone has the right to access breast milk.

It is essential that no one is left behind, especially vulnerable mothers who may need additional support to reduce inequalities in the ability to breastfeed.

This World Breastfeeding Week, let’s appreciate breastfeeding mums and ensure they get the support they need.

Breastfeeding support comes in many forms – from staff welcoming breastfeeding in your local café to helpful advice from a health worker or maternity protections from your government.

These all help protect the health and rights of women and babies

Mothers who brestfeed need:

- Policies and attitudes that value women and breastfeeding
- A women and breastfeeding-friendly health care system
- Respect for women’s autonomy and her right to breastfeed anytime, anywhere
- Solidarity and community support

This year we want to really recognize breastfeeding mums, ensure they are seen and heard, and share relatable human experiences about breastfeeding and the importance of multi-level support.

World Breastfeeding Week is held in the first week of August every year.

The theme for 2024 is Closing the gap: Breastfeeding support for all.

The campaign will celebrate breastfeeding mothers in all their diversity, throughout their breastfeeding journeys, while showcasing the ways families, societies, communities and health workers can have the back of every breastfeeding mother.

This World Breastfeeding Week, let’s appreciate breastfeeding mums and ensure they get the support they need.

Universal neonatal screening for eye anomalies is recommended. This should be accompanied by diagnostic and treatment services for infants in whom an abnormality is detected.

An estimated 1.14 million children aged 0-15 years are blind or have severe visual impairment due to eye conditions. The main causes of blindness are congenital and developmental cataracts, corneal scarring, congenital ocular anomalies, retinal dystrophies, glaucoma, and retinopathy of prematurity.

Conveying the right information, for the informed decision of mothers and families, is correct and ethical.
Considerable scientific evidence is available on breastfeeding and human milk feeding as a public health strategy given its myriad benefits for both newborns and breast feeders. However, breastfeeding is often perceived by some health care professionals as simply a lifestyle choice. They fear creating guilt in those who choose not to breastfeed by "pushing" for breastfeeding.