Nurturing New Beginnings: WHO’s Groundbreaking Series on Elevating Maternal and Newborn Care
Embark on a journey of enhanced maternal and newborn care with WHO’s latest series in BMJ Global Health. Explore evidence-backed insights, rights-based approaches, and practical solutions to create a positive postnatal experience. Dive into essential recommendations, from stakeholder perspectives to international policy standards, shaping the future of universal postnatal care. Join the conversation on women’s health, family dynamics, and global well-being.
—————————-
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN’s Special Programme on Human Reproduction (HRP) have teamed up to present a new series in BMJ Global Health, focusing on maternal and newborn care to ensure a positive postnatal experience. The series, comprising six articles, emphasizes the significance of understanding the perspectives of women, parents, and health workers, along with a rights-based approach, to enhance the quality of postnatal care universally.
These papers align with WHO recommendations, advocating for essential care for women and newborns post-pregnancy, identifying additional care needs, and ensuring access to services. The follow-up care, including postnatal check-ups after six weeks, emphasizes promoting a healthy lifestyle, good nutrition, disease prevention, and access to sexual and reproductive health, including postpartum family planning.
The first paper, “Stakeholder’s perspectives of postnatal discharge: a qualitative evidence synthesis,” underscores the critical moment of patient discharge and the need to provide adequate support for the transition from health facility to home care. Frustrations were expressed about the lack of time and resources for quality care before discharge, emphasizing the importance of considering the physical, emotional, and social needs of women and families during this process.
Other papers in the series delve into qualitative evidence on factors influencing postnatal care uptake, including unique challenges faced by adolescent girls, the influence of fathers, partners, and family members on women’s access to care, and the experiences of immigrant women and families in navigating unfamiliar health systems.
An additional paper, “Integrating international policy standards in the implementation of postnatal care: a rapid review,” highlights the alignment of existing international legal and political documents with WHO recommendations, providing a foundation for advocates and country program managers to create a supportive environment for high-quality postnatal care, rooted in human rights obligations.
The series also emphasizes critical areas for improvement, such as access to birth registration, information on family planning, support for breastfeeding, maternity leave, and protection from hospital detention or harmful marketing of breastmilk substitutes.
Connecting the 2022 guideline with previous WHO recommendations on antenatal and intrapartum care, the Postnatal care commentary offers a comprehensive vision for the quality care of women and newborns before, during, and after pregnancy.
WHO strives to offer expertise by engaging skilled healthcare professionals and trained community health workers, providing crucial support for women and newborns after childbirth. The findings from these papers contribute to the development of an integrated toolkit for the implementation of WHO recommendations on antenatal and postnatal care, set to be published in early 2024. This series builds on previous publications emphasizing a holistic approach to maternal and newborn health, acknowledging the interconnected nature of maternal health with a person’s environment and experiences throughout the perinatal period and beyond.
Also Read: Sleep Soundly: How Your Diet Influences Sleep Apnea Risk