Abstract
Dear Colleagues,
I am deeply honored to be the President of the National Neonatology Forum (NNF). I take this opportunity to thank the NNF members who reposed faith in me and gave me an opportunity to be the President of the most vibrant neonatal organization in India. Previously, I have worked in different capacities with the central NNF and now as President of NNF, I would carry forward the legacy of our predecessors and focus on teamwork in achieving the best standard of care with all enthusiastic members to make NNF a more vibrant, truly academic and genuinely a Pan India organization.
The facility-based newborn care (FBNC) is the flagship program of GOI which had its humble beginning in the year 2007-08 as a venture of the NNF of India with support from UNICEF in the existing public sector health infrastructure of the country. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India has established 1054 SNCUs, 2,774 NBSUs and 22,147 NBCCs across the country under this most vibrant program (MoHFW Annual Report 2022-23). The unique model of FBNC was recognized globally and implemented as-it-is in the 6 SAARC nations namely Bhutan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Srilanka and some nations of the African continent. Most importantly, India’s FBNC program along with some other country initiatives form the basis of the Small & Sick Newborn Care package of the WHO. I urge the NNF members along with Institutions serving as National, Regional and State resource centres to hand hold and mentor these units across the country. We should together ensure the implementation of this program across remaining SNCUs in India, especially in the aspirational districts during the current year.
The India Newborn Action Plan (INAP), a strategic plan developed in 2014 after a regional meeting at Colombo, Sri Lanka, attended by us as an MoHFW delegation, in response to the Global Every Newborn Action Plan outlined a targeted strategy for accelerating the reduction of preventable newborn deaths and stillbirths in the country to Single Digit NMR by 2030. The MoHFW, GOI has conducted a midterm (2014-22) desk review under the chairmanship of Professor S Ramji, President NNF (2022) along with bottleneck analysis of its implementation with the participation of a range of stakeholders. In addition to this, an independent exercise of evidence synthesis for newborn and child health was also done. This has been drafted through the evidence synthesis process which is aligned with the theme of INAP. I am fortunate to be part of this strategic plan meeting and henceforth, will collaborate as President NNF with MOHFW on the next steps towards achieving INAP and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets.
The official journal of the NNF, Journal of Neonatology was first released in 1983. As a member of various NNF scientific committees for years, I have witnessed the Journal’s steady growth, thanks to the efforts of all the previous leaders and highly enthusiastic editorial board members who have worked hard every day to get the journal indexed in Scopus and Embase databases. I am sure that the Journal of Neonatology will get indexed in the PUBMED database in the near future.
As per NFHS-5 data, the current exclusive breastfeeding rate in children under age six months stands at 63.7% with early initiation of breastfeeding within one hour of birth being as low as 41.7%. This is really concerning provided the importance of exclusive breastfeeding for improving both short- and long-term outcomes in neonates. Taking the abovesaid facts into cognizance, the current issue is dedicated to various aspects of the importance of skin-to-skin contact and early initiation of breastfeeding at birth, the importance of human milk feeding for the tiny preterm neonates, and human milk banking. Very interesting case reports –Neu Laxova Syndrome, and hypoglycemia in newborn with pituitary stalk interruption syndrome are real eye-openers. I am sure that the editorial team members are striving hard to improve the scientific rigor of the journals published in every issue by peer-review process safeguarding the quality and integrity of scientific and scholarly research. I hope the readers will like the scientific content and enjoy reading every page of the articles published in this issue.