Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Original Article
  • Published:

Impact of a district level sick newborn care unit on neonatal mortality rate: 2-year follow-up

Journal of Perinatology volume 29, pages 150–155 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Objective:

To evaluate the impact of creating a sick newborn care unit (SNCU) in a district hospital on neonatal mortality rate (NMR).

Setting:

A district hospital with 6500 deliveries a year.

Design:

Before and after study.

Method:

A 14 bed SNCU that included controlled environment, individual warming and monitoring devices, infusion pump, central oxygen and oxygen concentrators, resuscitation and exchange transfusion, portable X-ray and in-house laboratory was created. Doctors and nursing personnel were trained. Baseline data for 10 months were compared with 2 years data of SNCU operation.

Results:

Compared with the baseline neonatal mortality in the district hospital, neonatal mortality was reduced by 14% in the first year and by 21% in the second year after SNCU became functional. Estimated neonatal deaths averted were 329, which would reduce NMR of the district from 55 to 47 in 2 years.

Conclusion:

A modern sick newborn care facility created in a district hospital can substantially reduce hospital neonatal deaths and NMR of the district. This model may be an effective tool to reduce NMR of the country.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Lawn JE, Cousens S, Zupan J, for the Lancet Neonatal Survival Team. Neonatal survival 1: 4 million neonatal deaths: when? where? why? Lancet 2005; 365: 9–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Darmstadt GL, Bhutta ZA, Cousens S, Adam T, Walker N, de Bermis L, for the Lancet Neonatal Survival Team. Neonatal survival 2: evidence based, cost effective interventions: how many newborn babies can we save? Lancet 2005; 365: 19–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Sen A, Mahalanabis D, Singh AK, Som TK, Bandyopadhya S, Mehta P . District Level Sick Newborn Care Unit: a complementary approach to reduction of neonatal mortality. J Neonatol 2004; 18 (2): 48–55.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Sen A, Mahalanabis D, Singh AK, Som TK, Bandyopadhya S . Development and effects of a neonatal care unit in rural India. Lancet 2005; 366: 27–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Sen A, Mahalanabis D, Singh AK, Som TK, Bandyopadhya S . Role of district level sick newborn care unit in reducing neonatal mortality rate. Perinatology 2005; 7 (5): 220–222.

    Google Scholar 

  6. National Neonatology Forum, India. Norms for Accreditation of Level II Special Care Neonatal Units. National Neonatology Forum: New Delhi, 1991 Website: www.nnfi.org.

  7. Sen A, Mahalanabis D, Singh AK, Som TK, Bandyopadhyay S, Roy S . Newborn aides: an innovative approach in sick newborn care at a district-level special care unit. J Health Popul Nutr 2007; 25 (4): 495–501.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Agarwal R, Agarwal K, Acharya U, Christina P, Sreenivas V, Sectaraman S . Impact of simple interventions on neonatal mortality in a low resource teaching hospital in India. J Perinatol 2007; 27: 44–49.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank the concerned officials of UNICEF, Kolkata, the past and present chairpersons, Zilla Parishad (Local Self Government), the past and present District Magistrates, the Chief Medical Officer and his staff of Purulia District, the Secretary, Indian Red Cross Society, Purulia district branch, the trainers, assessors, and observers in the Newborn Aides Training Program, and the staff, Society for Applied Studies for active support.

Funding: The study was funded by UNICEF, India, Zilla Parishad (District Self-Government), Purulia and Society for Applied Studies Trust, Kolkata.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Society for Applied Studies, Kolkata, India

    A Sen & D Mahalanabis

  2. Department of Neonatology, Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, Kolkata, India

    A K Singh & T K Som

  3. Newborn Unit, District Hospital, Purulia, India

    S Bandyopadhyay

Authors
  1. A Sen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. D Mahalanabis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. A K Singh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. T K Som
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. S Bandyopadhyay
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to D Mahalanabis.

Additional information

Disclosure/Conflict of interest

All authors declare no conflict of interest.

Contributors: Amitava Sen took part in study design, project coordination, and supervision, analysis and writing the paper. Dilip Mahalanabis (guarantor) took part in study design, supervision, data analysis, writing, and interpretation. Arun K Singh took part in the training, supervision, and critical reading of the paper. Tapas K Som and Sudipta Bandyopadhyay underwent training in neonatology, ran the SNCU, collected data, and assisted in analysis.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Sen, A., Mahalanabis, D., Singh, A. et al. Impact of a district level sick newborn care unit on neonatal mortality rate: 2-year follow-up. J Perinatol 29, 150–155 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/jp.2008.177

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/jp.2008.177

Keywords

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links