Pari gets new child care unit
IN a move set to improve infant healthcare, Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals has established a dedicated Kangaroo Mother Care Unit, which will see pre-term babies being kept with their mothers from the time of birth to reduce neo-natal mortality rates by up to 50 percent.
The specialised unit allows mothers to practice skin-to-skin contact with their newborns, a practice scientifically proven to yield immense benefits for premature and fragile infants.
Speaking during a tour of the new unit yesterday, neonatologist and head of the kangaroo care unit at the Mbuya Nehanda Maternity Hospital, Dr Alex Stevenson, said the method was cheaper and more effective for premature babies than incubators.
“A premature baby goes on mum’s chest, mum is the incubator and provides the temperature. Mothers can modify the temperature of their chest relative to their baby’s temperature. When their baby starts to get cold, they heat up. So it seemed to be an obvious choice to invest in a new immediate kangaroo mother care unit, because not only is it cheaper, it’s a lot better. It’s been proven to reduce maternal mortality, to reduce neonatal mortality, but it also has many other important effects, primarily with bonding and the mental health of the mothers and of the babies as they spend the whole time together,” he said.
Globally, 15 million children are born preterm each year and 10,7 million are born at term but with low birthweight (less than 2,5kg). Zimbabwe has one of the highest prematurity rate in the world at around 18 percent, with at least half of these babies dying due to various reasons.
Dr Stevenson said the kangaroo mother care unit would help to reduce pre-term mortality from the 50 percent to about 25 percent.
While pre-term babies are ordinarily placed in the incubator to provide them with the required temperatures, these are expensive and the hospital was struggling to maintain the available ones and replace the old ones that were broken down.
“These incubators are expensive. A good incubator costs about US$60 000 but unfortunately, they break and need spare parts and maintenance. It’s been a constant problem here and we are overcrowded and we really struggle with space. We were often having two or three babies per isolate, which has many problems. We were thinking of getting more isolates, but we decided to actually take this radical and revolutionary approach,” he said.
Kangaroo care reduces infections that are associated with being in the incubator.
“It’s early for us to be looking at our data, but the nurses are already observing that the babies are growing better. These babies are almost all getting exclusive breast milk, whereas downstairs, there’s a lot more formula and that is hardly surprising when you separate mums and babies, they don’t get to breastfeed better.”
He gave an example of the case of baby Christian, who was born at 28 weeks weighing 1,08 kg. Before the umbilical cord was cut, he was placed on to his mother’s chest, from where got special respiratory support. The cord was clamped later, and the two were moved to the kangaroo care unit together.
Christian’s mother, Ms Shupikai Chari said the kangaroo method had worked very well for her and her baby.
“I gave birth to my child on April 24 and he was very small. I was introduced to kangaroo care immediately and we have been doing this since then. I am happy that I have so much contact with my child and he is growing very well,” she said.
Another mother, Ms Patience Chinembiri said her baby struggled to breathe on his own during the first few days, but kangaroo care had helped him.
“My son was born at 28 weeks weighing 1 000g but at one point, his weight went down to 900g but then he started picking and now he weighs 1040g. I am happy that I am always with my baby and he never goes to the incubator.
“If I see that there is something wrong with his breathing I can quickly alert the nurses and they attend to him. When we got here, he had trouble breathing and he would be on oxygen for long periods, but now he uses less oxygen and can breathe on his own for longer,” she said.