TINY bracelets are the focus of a new partnership between UNICEF and O&O Cruises, with the aim of reducing infant mortality in PNG.
PNG is understood to have one of the world’s highest infant mortality rates with 6000 babies dying each year before the age of four weeks.
This ‘Bebi Kol Kilok’ bracelet — or ‘Baby Cold Clock’ — fitted on a baby’s wrist flashes a warning to parents if the infant’s temperature falls.
The warning prompts the parents to use ‘Kangaroo Care’ — close skin-to-skin contact to warm their baby giving the infant a chance to survive and thrive.
The P&O Pacific Partnership is supporting UNICEF to introduce the bracelets in PNG including in Alotau where P&O ships have been visiting since 2013.
Carnival Australia president Sture Myrmell said the P&O Pacific Partnership’s support of the program was a natural step.
“This opportunity for the P&O Pacific Partnership to help fund a program to protect the health and wellbeing of mothers and newborns is an extension of this commitment,” Mr Myrmell said.
A mother and baby girl who was born in Alotau last weekend became recipients of a Bebi Kol Kilok enabling the parents to keep an eye on the infant’s body temperature.
A second element of the UNICEF ‘Saving Lives — Spreading Smiles’ program provides care for mothers who experience potentially life threatening bleeding following childbirth.
A package of care includes a Non-Pneumatic Anti-Shock Garment — a low cost external pressure suit to help control post-delivery bleeding.
