Newborns in Son La with Alive and Thrive meeting the Son La Department of Health (DOH) to plan a new programme. We listened to the local challenges of improving care for mothers and babies in this mountainous area, the impact of poverty, the weather, distance from Hanoi. To help plan a programme of training for doctors and nurses to build capacity, introduce Early Essential Newborn Care, develop education tools for mothers we visited three hospitals: Moc Chau Genreral Hopsital, Thao Nguyen Genreral Hopsital and Son La Genreral Hopsital. We were overwhelmed with the warmth of our welcome and we saw first-hand the special needs of this area.
Yesterday we returned to Moc Chau General Hospital, at our visit in April with the British Ambassador, David Lloyd, VTM race director we saw babies sharing infant warm beds and phototherapy machines. There was great joy as we handed over new lifesaving equipment. The nurses showed us with great pride the changes they had made following our on-line training and it was so good to see the babies comfortably nested to support their growth and brain development.
Thanks to a BritCham and VTM (Topas Travel) for supporting Newborns in Son La.