Publication:

Status of neonatal death in sick newborn care unit of a tertiary care hospital

Background In view of clusters of death in Sick New Born Care Units of tertiary care hospitals in recent past and few studies done so far in this field necessitates a research. The aim of the present study was to assess the factors associated with neonatal mortality and the infrastructure of the SNCU.

Methods All sick neonates admitted in the SNCU during June and July 2017 were followed up till they were discharged or declared dead. Data were collected by facility observation, interview of parents/attendants and from patient case sheet with a predesigned a pretested questionnaire and were analyzed applying appropriate statistical methods.

Results Prevalence neonatal death was 12 per cent among 250 sick neonates studied. Majority of neonatal deaths occurred   among mothers having lower SE Status 25 (27.4), antenatal visits less than 4 times (22, 22%), undernourished neonates (24, 37.5%) all of which were significant. Majority of morbidity were of Prematurity, (110, 44%) followed by Birth Asphyxia (96, 38.4%) and Infections (35.2%) and leading cause of death was infection. There was a deficit of resources from 25% to 75% and no monitoring and supervision were done till date.

Conclusions Health care delivery system at block level and below needs to be strengthened in terms of   antenatal visits, improvement of nutritional status of mother. The resource constraint of SNCU at tertiary care hospital and surveillance and monitoring mechanism requires prompt action to make SNCU more effective.