Neonatal Mortality: A Critical Global Health Issue

Ogbolu, Yolanda MS, NNP

About the Author

Yolanda Ogbolu practices as a neonatal nurse practitioner at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. Her activities, though, are hardly limited to her native Baltimore. Ms. Ogbolu has been invited twice to teach at Fati Lami Women's and Children's Hospital in Kebbi State, Nigeria, and continues an ongoing relationship with her Nigerian colleagues to decrease the infant mortality rate in that area. She also attends the University of Maryland School of Nursing in the PhD program with the goal of increasing research efforts and practical interventions to decrease worldwide infant mortality. Ms. Ogbolu is a founding member of Nurses for Global Health at the University of Maryland.

For further information, please contact: Yolanda Ogbolu, MS, NNP 6273 Hidden Clearing Columbia, MD 21045 E-mail: [email protected]

Neonatal Network 26(6):p 357-360, November-December 2007.

Almost all of the millions of babies who die worldwide in the first four weeks of life are in low- and middle-income countries. The socioeconomic status of developing countries adversely affects maternal-child health because it limits access to adequate nutrition, quality health care, medications, safe water, adequate sanitation, and other basic social services. The factors associated with high infant mortality rates transcend national boundaries, making infant mortality a critical global health problem. Poverty is one of the most important factors affecting the infant mortality rate in Nigeria. This examination of infant mortality in Nigeria exemplifies the multifactorial national and international issues underlying infant mortality in developing countries. Infant mortality in these countries will not improve without global attention and intervention. By finding creative ways to share expert knowledge about caring for neonates, neonatal nurses can contribute to global improvements in maternal-child health care.