Gombe Moves to Save Newborns as UNICEF Trains 104 Health Workers Amid Rising Mortality Concerns

The Gombe State Government and UNICEF have trained 104 health workers in newborn care as authorities intensify efforts to prevent avoidable infant deaths and improve survival rates across the state.

The two-day programme focused on strengthening the capacity of healthcare professionals to care for newborns, particularly premature babies and infants requiring specialised medical attention, against the backdrop of persistently high neonatal mortality in northern Nigeria.

The training brought together 48 healthcare workers from secondary health facilities, following an earlier programme involving 56 workers from primary healthcare centres.

Speaking in Gombe on Thursday, the Executive Secretary of the Gombe State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Abdulrahman Shuaibu, said improving the quality of newborn care was essential to reducing preventable deaths.

He explained that many babies were delivered in communities before being referred to secondary health facilities for specialised treatment, making it important for healthcare workers at both levels to have the necessary skills to respond to newborn complications.

“Therefore, it is important to strengthen the capacity of healthcare workers at these facilities to provide appropriate care for newborns,” Shuaibu said.

He acknowledged that neonatal and infant mortality remained a serious concern in the state, calling for stronger cooperation between government agencies, healthcare providers and development partners to improve outcomes for mothers and their babies.

“It is our hope and prayer that this training will contribute to a significant decline in neonatal mortality across our communities,” he added.

Shuaibu urged participants to pass on the knowledge acquired to colleagues who did not attend the programme, noting that wider sharing of skills would help more health facilities provide appropriate care for newborns.

He said the initiative complemented the state government's efforts to upgrade primary and secondary healthcare facilities and commended UNICEF and other development partners for supporting improvements in the health sector.

A UNICEF health officer at its Bauchi Field Office, Oluseyi Olosunde, said the programme was organised to commemorate the 2026 World Prematurity Day, with particular attention to improving care for premature babies and other vulnerable newborns.

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Olosunde stressed that survival depended not only on access to healthcare but also on the quality of treatment mothers and babies received during pregnancy, childbirth and the period immediately after delivery.

“Every child deserves to live, and to make every child enjoy this right to life, the quality of care is important,” he said.

He explained that nurses, midwives and doctors involved in maternal and newborn healthcare were targeted because of their crucial roles in identifying complications and providing timely treatment.

“We are training them to ensure that the mother survives, every woman survives, and every child survives,” Olosunde said.

He described newborn deaths in several northern states as unacceptably high and urged the trained workers to apply their knowledge in their respective facilities to improve services and protect vulnerable babies.

Consultant paediatrician at the Federal Teaching Hospital, Gombe, Dr Raymond Mercy, also called on healthcare workers to prioritise proper newborn care.

Mercy, a member of the Paediatric Association of Nigeria and the Nigerian Society of Neonatal Medicine, said Nigeria's neonatal mortality rate stood between 34 and 41 deaths per 1,000 live births.

She said the country had the world's second-highest burden of neonatal mortality, underscoring the need for stronger interventions to prevent deaths during the first weeks of life.

The training highlights the importance of equipping frontline healthcare workers with the skills needed to identify newborn complications early and provide appropriate treatment.

However, sustaining improvements will require more than training alone. Continued investment in healthcare facilities, essential medical supplies, specialised newborn services and the practical application of the skills acquired will remain critical to reducing preventable deaths across Gombe State and beyond.