https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2026486 takes you to the full text of this 2021 publication from WHO comparing survival data of low birth weight infants nursed skin to skin from birth with a cohort who only received a couple of hours a day of skin to skin care. The trial had to be cut short because the babies in the control group (couple of hours a day) had a significantly higher risk of dying than the babies in the intervention group (around 17 hours a day skin to skin).
Grace gathered 9 of the trained instructors in Cameroon this month for a Neonatal Care Course which trained 36 more healthcare workers in the care of the newborn baby in the first 28 days of life. Quite a feat in a country battling with Covid and political unrest. Immensely rewarding for NICHE volunteers and trustees to see the programme up and running without much direction from us. Julia did try to “drop in” to some of the sessions via zoom on day 2 but the internet connection was so bad that, in the end, she gave up and let the Cameroonian faculty get on with it themselves. There’s only so much one can do remotely.