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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