FREQUENT QUESTIONS

Before organizing a neonatal transport system, there needs to be planning and coordination at the national and regional levels to align transport goals and objectives with those of the health system as a whole.
The planning process includes:
• Alignment of the objectives aimed to improve health system outcomes and transportation priority cases (and cases excluded).
• Estimation of the demand for care for each health problem selected and per region (met and unmet needs).

After childbirth, it is usual for some mothers to suffer from depression or anxiety. This is due to multiple causes and, in no case should the woman going through these situations be judged. It usually appears as feelings of sadness, irritability, difficulty falling asleep or extreme tiredness.
It is very important to attend to the mother's mental health and social well-being. Referral to a specialist may be advisable.
It is also important to involve the father, sexual partner or other companions, both in the care of the child and in supporting the mother.

Delays in the neonatal transfer system can have an impact on mortality. The “three delays” model (Thaddeus and Maine, 1994) describes a conceptual framework for the factors and phases of delay that influence timely access to specialized emergency care. The model makes it possible to analyze delays in the process at each stage of neonatal transfers.
In most cases, neonates are transferred from a primary care center to a referral center, but it can also occur from the community, from a facility or from within the same center.

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.

Banked human milk is the alternative for feeding premature newborns because it allows them to receive a diet consisting of exclusive human milk when the baby’s own mother's milk is unavailable, scarce or contraindicated.

It should be noted that BHM is superior to artificial formula.

Human milk banks should have standards and procedures in place to ensure that they provide sustainability, safety, and appropriate clinical and ethical use.

Universal screening for neonatal hyperbilirubinemia with transcutaneous bilirubinometer (TcB) is recommended at the time of discharge from the health center.
Physicians should ensure that all newborns are systematically monitored to rule out the potential occurrence of jaundice during the stay in the health center.

The postnatal age for universal TcB screening at discharge should be based on when the baby is discharged from the health center.

Since 2011, November 17 has been recognized as the World Prematurity Day in order to give visibility to this problem, raise awareness of the needs and rights of premature babies and their families, sensitize decision makers, health teams and the whole society about the importance of experience and quality care, to advance policies that guarantee the full rights of both babies and families.

Kangaroo mother care is an intervention that enables the mother to assume a central role in her own and her newborn's care, thus ensuring that the lead role remains with the mother and that health workers support and respond to the mother’s and newborn’s needs.

The involvement of fathers/partners and families is important to support mothers in providing Kangaroo Care while in the facility and at home after discharge.

Father and family involvement is especially important when the mother is medically unstable or recovering from surgery.

In the neonatal intensive care unit, parents are not visitors. Families are the true protagonists in the care of their babies

Early skin-to-skin contact and early breastfeeding are two closely linked interventions that should be carried out immediately after birth.
Immediate and prolonged skin-to-skin contact facilitates lactation, enriches the microbiome of newborns, prevents hypothermia and hypoglycemia, and stabilizes respiratory function.
Early suckling at the breast stimulates the activation of milk secretion and transfers colostrum, rich in immunoactive substances, especially important for those born prematurely.