Infant Protection Day

Infant Protection Day is celebrated on 7 November. The day aims to celebrate the day to spread awareness about the safety of infants and protect their lives by taking proper care of infants.

It should be made aware that due to the lack of proper protection and proper care, newborns face a lot of problems. 

According to The World Health Organisation’s report, In 2019, 2.4 million children died in the first month of their life. Every day there are approximately 7,000 deaths each day, which constitute 47% of all child deaths (under the age of 5 years), which estimates to one-third of deaths on the day of birth and approx three-quarter deaths within the first week of life.

Infant mortality in India:

In India, the infant mortality rate is higher as compared to other countries due to the lack of health care. The government has announced an effective measure to prevent infant mortality by implementing it. Due to the lack of basic health services, lack of awareness, and the increasing burden of the population, there has not been an expected reduction in infant mortality.

Globally :

Although the total number of newborn deaths globally showed a decline in figures from 5 million in 1990 to 2.4 million in 2019, and the report stated that newborns face the greatest risk of deaths in their first 28 days.

Newborn care and safety :

Newborn care and safety are the activities and precautions recommended for new parents or caregivers. It is also an educational goal of many hospitals and birthing centers when it’s time to bring their infant home.

Infant need vaccines because the diseases they protect against can strike at an early age and can be very dangerous in childhood.

Sudden infant death syndrome :

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), also known as cot death or crib death, is the sudden unexplained death of a child of less than one year of age. Diagnosis requires that the death remain unexplained even after a thorough autopsy  and detailed death scene investigation. SIDS usually occurs during sleep. There is usually no noise or evidence of struggle. SIDS remains the leading cause of infant mortality in Western countries, contributing to half of all post-neonatal deaths.

The exact cause of SIDS is unknown. The requirement of a combination of factors including a specific underlying susceptibility, a specific time in development, and an environmental stressor has been proposed. These environmental stressors may include sleeping on the stomach or side, overheating, and exposure to tobacco smoke.  Another risk factor is being born before 39 weeks of gestation. SIDS makes up about 80% of sudden and unexpected infant deaths (SUIDs).  The other 20% of cases are often caused by infections, genetic disorders, and heart problems.

Prevention :

A number of measures have been found to be effective in preventing SIDS including changing the sleeping position, breastfeeding, limiting soft bedding, immunizing the infant and using pacifiers.

Sleep positioning :

Sleeping on the back has been found to reduce the risk of SIDS.^[66] It is thus recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics and promoted as a best practice by the US National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) “Safe to Sleep” campaign. The incidence of SIDS has fallen in a number of countries in which this recommendation has been widely adopted.

Vaccination :

Higher rates of DTP immunization is associated with lower rates of SIDS supporting recommendations on timely DTP immunization.

Many other studies have also reached conclusions that vaccinations reduce the risk of SIDS. Studies generally show that SIDS risk is approximately halved by vaccinations.

Infants can be the change makers of tomorrow, these little hearts are to build a bigger dream of possibility, they are the future and we must protect them. This Infant Protection Day, let us make a promise to raise them in a better world.

“future of the society lies on the nobility of infants today“.

Infant Protection Day promotes the proper development of infants and children to protect the well being and health of both mother and child. Alarmingly the first few hours and days are the most critical ones, for both to be carefully handled for their healthy future. Hence being careful toward them becomes our priority.