Learning What Works Better for the Mother and Baby
July 12, 2012

From the Field: Elele, Nigeria
Written by: Virginia Stone, RNC

We completed our third day of Helping Babies Breathe training at a nearby village.  Today's two groups of trainees are all midwives who deliver babies. While listening to some of their stories, we identified several common birthing practices that need to be updated. We sensed that the midwives were agreeable to changing their methods to improve neonatal outcomes.

We focused our training on appropriate suctioning of the newborn and acceptable ways to stmulate breathing in newly birthed babies. Today's... read more

The "Golden Minute"
July 11, 2012

From the Field: Port Harcourt, Nigeria
Written by: Stacy Lawton

I know it's  Wednesday and I think it's July 11, not really sure?...My sense of time is as foreign as this country!  Finally got a good nights sleep last night! I definitely needed i because today we trained 3 groups with approximately 16-20 people each session. It was  a good mix of nurses, physicians, and birth attendants.  A good portion of trainees practice in the rural village areas and do not have access to ambu bags, masks and bulb syringes or suctioning devices. Most did mouth to mouth with some sort of... read more

Training Health Workers in Nigeria Saves Lives
July 10, 2012

From the Field: Rivers State, Nigeria
Written by: Denise Tarves

Field Notes:
The team includes three nurse educators from Chesapeake Regional Medical Center in southern Virginia: Stacy Lawton, RN, Denise Tarves, RN, and Virginia Stone, RN. Emejuru, Tarves and Stone have participated in previous Physicians for Peace training efforts in Rivers State aimed at building capabilities among birth attendants; the outreach in July builds on those efforts by introducing Helping Babies Breathe, an award-winning program released by the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2011 and... read more

60 Seconds to Save a Life
June 28, 2012

Seven hundred babies die each day in Nigeria. That’s 30 deaths an hour. Many of these deaths are preventable, the result of injury, infection or prematurity. This is a tragedy.

In fact, the first 60 seconds after birth are critical to survival as infants gasp for their first breath. This pivotal time period – the “Golden Minute” – is the focus of Physicians for Peace’s latest medical training outreach in Nigeria, where we’ll work alongside local physicians, nurses and midwives to provide Nigerian healthcare teams with the skills to resuscitate at-risk newborns using basic supplies... read more

Ethicon: More Than a Collection Drive - Working Together for Health
June 19, 2012
Written By: Monika Bridgforth - PFP Staff
Location: Norfolk, VA   When Michael Dahl, Virginia Beach-based Clinical Sales Representative for Ethicon Inc., hosted his Division meeting in Virginia Beach on June 14-15, he thought of the many local organizations doing great work in the community and around the world. Ethicon, a Johnson & Johnson company, was founded 80 years ago when they pioneered sutures as a way to enhance the work of surgeons and the lives of patients. Today, Ethicon has expanded to focus on... read more

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