Home-Based Newborn Care: How Effective and Feasible?

Neonatal mortality in developing countries is one of the most important problems that need immediate attention in order to achieve Millennium Development Goals. About 4 million newborns die in the world every year, 90% of them in the developing world. Most of these deaths are preventable by simple interventions in the community. However, in most of the target countries, the implementation of essential newborn care has been very poor. The home based or community care packages include maternal care essential newborn care, improving the behavior change communication of the community, resuscitation of newborn babies at the time of home delivery, and management of sick newborns with antibiotics at home. Studies have reported one-third to two-third reduction of mortality among newborns after home based care interventions. However, when translated into scaling up of home based newborn care in the worst affected districts of the country, the results are not very rewarding. Identification of limiting factors and effective up scaling of the home-based packages will prove to be of enormous benefit in reducing neonatal mortality.