MANILA - The Department of Health (DOH) on Monday said it expects a sharp cut in the number of infant deaths in the country as it launched a new program that addresses the health of newborns.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the Essential Newborn Care protocol is a comprehensive strategy to improve the health of the newborn through interventions before conception during pregnancy, at and soon after birth, and in the postnatal period.

“For this protocol, we are focusing on the first few hours of life of the newborn with the manual guiding the health workers and medical practitioners in providing evidence-based essential newborn care,” Duque said in a statement.

He said that the guidelines categorize procedures into time-bound, non-time bound, and unnecessary procedures.

Time bound interventions should be routinely performed first and include: immediate drying, skin to skin contact followed by clamping of the cord after 1 to 3 minutes, non-separation of the newborn from the mother, and breastfeeding initiation. Non-time bound interventions include immunizations, eye care, Vitamin K administration, weighing and washing. 

“There are also the so-called unnecessary procedures and these include routine suctioning, routine separation of newborns for observation, administration of prelacteals like glucose water or formula, and footprinting,” Duque said.

Health authorities said infant mortality rates in the Philippines have been decreasing in the past decade.

“Although childhood death rates in the country showed a downward trend from 1993 to 2003, the decline slowed down in the last 10 years,” Duque said, noting that the under-five mortality rate decreased to only 32 per 1000 livebirths in 2003 from 52 per 1,000 livebirths in 1988. 

He said that neonatal and post-neonatal deaths declined the slowest over the past 20 years with the reduction of only 9 percent and 7 percent, respectively, from 1988 to 2003. 

“Our analysis showed that 50 percent of these deaths occur during the first two days of life with the following as causes: birth asphyxia (31%), complications of prematurity (30%) and severe infection (19%),” he said.