In low-resource countries like Uganda, one in two premature newborns dies from lack of adequate care. Warming, feeding and protecting: the simple actions that, there, save the lives of premature babies.
Every year, more than 15 million children are born too early worldwide. More than one in ten. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines a child born before the 37th week of gestation as preterm, or premature. Today, prematurity is the leading cause of death in children under 5 years of age.
Unfortunately, the differences between the global north and south in terms of survival remain significant. Nine of the eleven countries with a preterm birth rate above 15 per cent are located in sub-Saharan Africa. In low-resource areas, such as Uganda, more than half of babies born before term die from lack of adequate care.
Aside from the serious conditions that can affect premature babies, they require care that is simple yet vital: being kept warm, being fed adequately, being protected from infections. Ensuring this basic care means saving the lives of thousands of children every day.
Very often these conditions are not even guaranteed within hospitals, especially rural ones. Every healthcare facility should first and foremost ensure newborn care, as well as an adequate level of medical assistance.
Low-cost practices such as the kangaroo technique, which involves skin-to-skin contact between mother and newborn, or infection prevention through rigorous hygiene measures and the use of antibiotics, would allow many premature newborns to survive even in these settings.
In this regard, of fundamental importance is the training of staff dedicated to newborn care, capable of providing adequate care for children and educating mothers. Returning home after childbirth, to environments that are often overcrowded, damp, with poor hygiene and the use of non-potable water, represents a significant risk factor for these small patients, who frequently return to hospital a few days after discharge with serious infections that are often fatal.
Informing and educating mothers about the appropriate ways to care for a newborn (for example, the simple use of cloth nappies or clean water), and about the warning signs that make it necessary for healthcare staff to reassess the child, is the priority goal to be achieved in order to reduce neonatal mortality in these countries too.
In Kalongo, the first rains are already arriving: women hoe the fields, look after large families, carry firewood and jerrycans of water. All women, including those who are pregnant. And premature births, inevitably, are on the rise.