In the month of July 2022, a total number of 183 new-borns were admitted on ward. Amongst these, 124 were term and 59 were pre-term babies. Twenty five (25) pre-term babies received Kangaroo mother care.

 

A total of 98 babies were discharged from the ward, of these, 39 were pre-terms, and 26 of them had received Kangaroo care. Thirty six new-borns died, 16 of whom were pre-terms.  Forty nine (49) children left hospital before treatment was completed; four babies were receiving KMC.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The leading cause of death among term infants was birth Asphyxia and HIE and extreme prematurity, that is babies born with a weight of less than 1000g was the leading cause of death among the preterm babies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE REPUBLIC OF UGANDA

                                                                           

 

                                                            1^st August 2022

 

 

 

In the month of July 2022, a total number of 183 new-borns were admitted on ward. Amongst these, 124 were term and 59 were pre-term babies. Twenty five (25) pre-term babies received Kangaroo mother care.

 

A total of 98 babies were discharged from the ward, of these, 39 were pre-terms, and 26 of them had received Kangaroo care. Thirty six new-borns died, 16 of whom were pre-terms.  Forty nine (49) children left hospital before treatment was completed; four babies were receiving KMC.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The leading cause of death among term infants was birth Asphyxia and HIE and extreme prematurity, that is babies born with a weight of less than 1000g was the leading cause of death among the preterm babies.

 

Cumulatively, we have admitted 3281 new-born since 15^th Jan 2021 of whom 2269 were terms and 1013 were pre-terms and so far 296 babies have been enrolled under kangaroo mother care.

 

 

Teaching mothers about the practice of Kangaroo care is actively ongoing on ward. This teaching is basically done for mothers with pre-term infants that have been transferred out of vthe Neonatal ICU to the stable preterm side and are awaiting discharge. These are stable babies that are off oxygen, able to breastfeed or able to feed by cup and spoon and weigh and most of whom weigh 1.3kg. babies that weigh less than 1.3kg and are very stable, mothers are advised to just do skin to skin contact for the babies without using the Kangaroo care wrap.  

At discharge, mothers are given review dates, thus they are encouraged to continue Kangaroo care at home until babies gain the desired weight.

 

 

 

Mother to mother training is also still ongoing. Newly admitted mothers with stable pre-terms and those that have been transferred from neonatal ICU are taught about the benefits of Kangaroo care to the newborn pre-terms.

The practice has been highly accepted by mothers that the incidence of mothers that are hesitant to do KMC for their preterm infants has greatly reduced.

 

 

The practice of Kangaroo care has been highly adapted on ward, that its nolonger only mothers that do Kangaroo care, but other family members are also highly involved in the Kangaroo care practice; for instance

This is a 33 year old mother,  a para5 that delivered twins  at 30 Weeks of gestation. The first twin weighed 1.29kg and the second twin weighed 1.2kgs. She was advised to stay back in hospital so that babies could gain weight upto atleast 1.5kg. Her mother inlaw stayed back with her was of great help in doing Kangaroo care for the other twin

 

 

Fathers have also been highly involved in the Kangaroo care Practice; for instance we have this father who had his babyborn at 34 weeks of gestation by emergency cesearian section with a birth weight of 1.7kg. The mother to the baby was initially unstable to do Kangaroo care for her baby, so the father took responsbility to KMC for the newborn until the mother stabilized.

This father was also of great benefit as he was also able to teach other mothers about the benefits of Kangaroo care practice to their babies and also teach  them how to wrap them around their chest.

 

 

 

 

 

The extension of the Kangaroo care room has also been benefitial to the mothers doing Kangaroo care. Initially the Kangaroo care room only contained 4 beds and others mothers would have to wait for the discharge of those mothers to have beds so that they efficiently do KMC, but the addition of more beds in the stable preterm room is enabling more mothers to do Kangaroo care with more ease.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was a visit by the district governor of the Rotary club to Mbarara and on the 29^th July 2022, the among the projects of Rotary Club running in Mbarara, the Kangaroo Mother Care project in Mbarara Regional Hospital was among the projects visisted to see the progess. He was highly impressed with the work going on at the hospital and promised more support to the Neonatal work from the Rotary Club.

 

 

 

 

 

 Planned activities for next month

 

Prepared by;

Project Coordinator

 

CC: Head of Department – Newborn Care unit

       Rotary Club of Mbarara President