EINC Don'ts and Do's

Unnecessary Intervention: Footprinting of newborns is currently still a widespread practice in the Philippines as means of identification of newborns. In the first few minutes following delivery, the newborn’s feet are pressed into a common inkpad and later pressed onto an identification sheet. Not only is this practice is usually done by untrained personnel with variable results, but more importantly also increases the risk of cross contamination among the babies. In 1988, the American Academy of Pedicatrics (AAP) and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) stated that “individual hospitals may want to continue the practice...

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Tondo Medical Center : Commitments that Effect Change by Donna Miranda

These days the staff of Tondo Medical Center (TMC) can only recall with nostalgia what was once the harried and busy atmosphere of its Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, but not without relief.In fact if there were anything noticeable, it was the great deal of pride, satisfaction and enthusiasm beaming from hospital director Dr. Victor de la Cruz who together with his hospital staff has managed to successfully initiate change within a short period of time. Nowadays the nurses at the NICU jokingly lament how awfully quiet it has become since NICU admissions have begun to dramatically decrease to 10.9 % of total deliveries from January to March 2011....

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EINC friendly Birth Center to Open at EAMC

This July, East Avenue Medical Center (EAMC) is slated to complete its Birthing Center. To be headed by Dr. Elenita Veloso, the Birthing Center now has a spacious examination room, a spacious EINC area to accommodate mother-baby dyads with 30 reclining beds, and an OR for emergency CS cases. After touring the premises, the EINC working group has expressed its satisfaction with the Birthing Center’s steady development, forseeing further improvement in the OB Department’s already impressive statistics. Since EINC was implemented in April, performance of unnecessary practices have steadily gone down, and there has been very good compliance with...

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More Comfort from Mommy-friendly Beds in JRMMC

June 3, 2011 – All delivery beds in Jose Reyes have been made “mommy-friendly” by fitting them with special wedges so mothers now deliver in non-supine positions. “Mothers are more comfortable, there have been no complaints, reported Dr. Francesca Tatad-To, Team EINC Co-Convener. This was reported during a weekly review of EINC progress in May 2011. This innovation is a welcome addition to the low sepsis rates among term babies and low mortality rates, both at less than 1%. During this period, NICU admission rate was 10% of all deliveries. The innovation of letting mothers have a “position of choice” comes as a result of the repeat delivery observations...

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QUIRINO MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER EXPERIENCE: Accepting the challenge of change by Donna Miranda

The Quirino Memorial Medical Center (QMMC), formerly known as the “labor “ hospital in Quezon City, was among 51 government-run hospitals included in a comprehensive study on prevailing newborn care practices in the Philippines starting November, 2008. In hindsight, Dr. Belle Vitangcol, head of QMMC’s pediatrics department and lead ENC trainor, remembers this as the starting point of a whirlwind that in barely one year’s time would sweep away many traditional practices and attitudes in the delivery room, and usher in a radically different regimen on essential newborn care. Even before researchers backed by he Department of Health and the...

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Are Newborn Care Practices Done Properly within the First Hour of Life? A Survey on 51 of the Largest Hospitals in the Philippines

The Philippines is one of 42 countries accounting for 90 percent of all global deaths in children under 5 years of age with 82,000 Filipinos die before reaching their 5th birthday. There are also over 40,000 newborns who die annually. And if newborn mortality is not reduced by half, the goal of reducing childhood mortality by two thirds, which is part of the Millennium Development Goals, will not be met. In a study of consecutive deliveries in 51 of the largest hospitals in 9 regions in the Philippines, an assessment tool developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a standard in Newborn Care which included the evidence-based intervention,...

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UnangYakap Embraces 8,962 Healthcare Professionals

Dr. Mianne Silvestre, EINC Team Convenor and WHO Consultant, reports that at least 8,962 healthcare professionals are now aware or knowledgeable in essential intrapartum and newborn care (EINC) practices. We believe this means that mothers and newborns will benefit from safer, quality care from these health facilities. “From October to May 2011, we tripled our goals when requests for the EINC training course, spontaneously came from private hospitals (12%) and public hospitals in provinces outside NCR (6%). The biggest chunk of awareness still comes from those who attended lectures of our EINC team or talks provided at special forum (53%)....

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