Integrated Maternal and Newborn Care Basic Skills Course ...

o Transfer the mother and baby along with a family member. If possible, have a health
care worker accompany them.
o If possible, inform the referral center by telephone of the condition of the baby,
including the maternal history.
o Prepare for the transfer by stabilizing the baby’s condition to the extent possible and
giving the first dose of antibiotics.
• Document the referral and its time in the record book of the peripheral center.
• The referral document of the baby to be sent with the family should contain the following:
o name and address of the mother
o date and time of birth
o reason for referral
o treatment initiated
o all available information on pregnancy, labor, delivery, postnatal period, and
supplemental information on the baby
o advice given
• If the transfer is delayed or not possible for any reason:
o Continue the antibiotic treatment, breast feeding/feeding of expressed breast milk,
and skin-to-skin contact.
o Continue family support.
IDENTIFYING AND TREATING MINOR INFECTIONS
Conjunctivitis/Eye Infections
At peripheral health centers it is not possible to carry out cultures. Unfortunately, gonococcal
infection is a serious problem and can lead to blindness. Assume and treat as gonococcal
infection if there is frank pus discharge in endemic areas in babies within the first week, with or
without swelling:
• Give ceftriaxone IM 50 mg/kg in a single dose.
• While wearing gloves, clean the eyelids using cotton swabs that have been sterilized by
boiling in clean water for at least 10 minutes and then cooled down before putting in the
eye drops/ointment, such as tetracycline, as recommended by the Ministry of Health.
Teach the mother and ask her to repeat the treatment 4 times/day.
• If the mother and baby are near a health facility, there is no need to admit the mother
and baby; otherwise they need to be admitted.
• Treat the mother and partner, if not already treated. Give ceftriaxone 250 mg IM as a
single dose to the mother and give a ciprofloxacin, 500 mg orally as a single dose to the
partner.
• Where the above drugs are not available, refer to an appropriate hospital.
• If you are in a non-endemic area and the eyes are red and sticky, without excess pus
discharge:
o Continue cleaning the eyes and apply 1% tetracycline ointment to the affected eye(s)
3-4 times a day until symptoms disappear.
o If the problem persists after 2 days of general management and/or pus appears, start
erythromycin by mouth 12.5 mg/kg every 8 hours for 14 days.
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Integrated maternal and newborn care
Basic skills course