Pediatrics & Therapeutics
Open Access

Abstract

Health care seeking for seriously ill newborns among families in a state in India

Preetha Gopinathan Nair Sajidammal

ow cost, high impact focussed interventions have been identified to improve neonatal survival. This paper assesses the health seeking for sick newborns who were declared seriously ill immediately after their birth and the constraints faced by the families to access care. The study was done as a social autopsy of a sample of 382 neonatal deaths which occured during a calendar year (January- December 2017) in four districts of a state in India. Using a semi structured social autopsy tool, information on the final illness of the newborn was collected from the principal care taker.
It was seen that 75% of the total sample of newborns (287/382), 60% of them males, were recognized to be seriously ill at or immediately after birth; 39% of them (113/287) died in the hospitals they were born or reached after delivering out of hospital. Majority were early neonatal deaths, pre term and had low birth weight. Three quarters of them could not be breastfed. The most common reasons for referral to higher facilities were need for specialized care or lack of equipment or drugs or oxygen administration facilities or blood transfusion facilities. Treatment was delayed for many newborns due to time taken in reaching the referral facilities. Families had to bear high out of pocket expenditure and had to overcome challenges of cost among others. It is imperative that intensive care facilities for newborns is strengthened at secondary and tertiary levels of care, also ensuring availability of drugs and equipment.