Improving Global Newborn Survival: Building upon Helping Babies Breathe

Achieving the targets of the Every Newborn Action Plan by the year 2030 will require accelerating the current reduction in neonatal mortality. Educational programs addressing the three major causes of neonatal death - intrapartum-related events (asphyxia), prematurity and small size at birth, and infection - have the potential to significantly reduce preventable mortality. Helping Babies Breathe is an example of an educational program that not only has given health care providers around the world access to current resuscitation science but has changed provider behavior and patient outcomes and resulted in perinatal quality improvement in small- and large-scale trials. However, to realize impact on neonatal mortality at the population level, perinatal educational programs that comprehensively address all aspects of essential newborn care must be implemented at scale with high coverage and quality.