1. EARLY ESSENTIAL NEWBORN CARE
SOUTH PACIFIC NURSES FORUM
2016

2. BACKGROUND
Early Essential Newborn Care (EENC) is a World Health Organisation (WHO) Initiative which looks to improve hygiene and infection control practices at the time of birth and to make delayed cord clamping, skin-to-skin contact and early breastfeeding the standard of care
The Solomon Islands is the 7th country to adopt EENC
The Solomon Islands was selected for EENC because under-5 child mortality is high compared to the rest of the WHO region

3. WHY FOCUS ON NEWBORN HEALTH?
In the Solomon Islands a high proportion of under-5 deaths are
Neonatal deaths
In 2015 the Newborn Health Program was established in the RCH Division at the MHMS to focus on interventions to improve newborn outcomes, which account for 44% of under 5 mortality in the Solomon Islands.

4. ADOPTION OF APROACH
Roll out of EENC began at the National Referral Hospital (NRH) in March 2015
All staff coming into contact with birthing mothers undergo 2 days of coaching
Staff have been overwhelmingly supportive of the change in practice
Mothers and staff have reported increased satisfaction with labour and birth care

5. BIRTH RATE AT NRH

6. STATISTICS

7. STATISTICS

8. CHALLENGES
It has been difficult to maintain EENC practices in the operating theatre
The increasing workload of labour ward means that sometimes women need to be moved before completing 90 minutes of skin-to-skin and the first breastfeed
Not all aspects of the health facility strengthening component of EENC have been implemented
It is difficult to properly assess the impact of EENC on neonatal health as there has been poor record keeping in the past

9. FUTURE DIRECTION NRH conducts regular audits of EENC practices
NRH is in the process of implementing annual accreditation in neonatal resuscitation
It has been identified that there is an urgent need to address issues with overcrowding in all wards at NRH
There needs to be further improvement in hand hygiene practices
EENC continues to be rolled out to the provinces with the aim of standardising labour and birth care across the Solomon Islands

10. Thank you for listening