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Essential Newborn Care

Saving Newborns One Minute at a Time

Essential Newborn Care is a direct response to the staggering estimate from the WHO that nearly 1 million newborns die from birth asphyxia—a condition where a baby doesn’t breathe at birth. The vast majority of these deaths occur in low-resource settings, where birth attendants may lack access to simple, effective tools and training.

Project C.U.R.E.’s Essential Newborn Care (ENC) program addresses this urgent challenge by equipping nurses, midwives, and traditional birth attendants with the skills to act decisively in the first critical minute of life, often referred to as The Golden Minute. This program is part of a global effort to dramatically reduce newborn mortality through early, effective intervention.

ARE YOU INTERESTED IN BECOMING A MASTER TRAINER?

How does it work?

Essential Newborn Care is a comprehensive, two-part training program developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) in collaboration with partners like the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and USAID. It builds on the foundational Helping Babies Breathe (HBB) curriculum and is based on the latest global recommendations. This training includes:

  • Essential Newborn Care 1: focused on the skills to provide better care to newborns, and save the lives of those who suffer birth asphyxia.
  • Essential Newborn Care 2: focused on the skills to provide better care to newborns after the first 60 minutes of life.

Each training uses realistic simulators and hands-on practice to build clinical confidence and ensure long-term skill retention. Participants complete Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) to demonstrate clinical competency.

ENC follows a Train-the-Trainer model. Project C.U.R.E.’s International facilitators travel to partner communities to train local healthcare providers, who can then become certified local Master Trainers. These local Master Trainers lead ongoing, locally-run trainings in their communities, ensuring that the knowledge continues to spread long after Project C.U.R.E. leaves.

This model ensures the skills are sustainable, scalable, and deeply rooted in local capacity.

ARE YOU ALREADY A MASTER TRAINER?

ENC Impact

Since 2013, we have trained over 1,450 in-country birth attendants in 18 countries and certified over 170 in-country Master Trainers.

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Other Training Programs

We are always accepting applications for Master Trainers to join us on our C.U.R.E. College trips. Have questions? Please email us at [email protected].

At the heart of Project C.U.R.E. are people like you who are willing to get involved by donating or volunteering. Together we can change the world! Contact our International Headquarters at +1-888-427-6942.

Ranked by Forbes as one of the “20 Most Efficient Large U.S. Charities”.

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