Health Topics

When calculating local facility-based delivery rates, the standard measure based on place of birth excludes residents' facility births outside the municipality. In contrast, counting the facility births of all residents—regardless of whether they take place within or outside their home municipality—provides a more accurate population- or residence-based measure of use of services for that catchment area. This residence-based measure offers local governments a better understanding of coverage gaps by taking into account place of residence rather than place of birth.

The revised Helping Babies Breathe training package now emphasizes the need for regular practice and quality improvement—an important improvement since more is needed than one-off training to have substantial impact on asphyxia-related newborn mortality.

Many countries will need to double, or more than double, their current annual rate of reduction of maternal mortality to ensure sufficient progress toward national targets and the global Sustainable Development Goals. Dedication to the principles and actions of quality, equity, dignity, social justice, and human rights are key.

Evaluation of the campaign confirmed its feasibility in this setting: it achieved high coverage, few adverse events, and mostly positive media coverage. However, challenges occurred in data and cold chain management. Future implementation requires improved partnerships between government ministries, simplified informed consent, and closer monitoring of social media messaging.