On March 28th, Sylvia Nyange welcomed her first bundle of joy at St. Francis Hospital, Nsambya. Nyange says the following day, she was discharged from the hospital because everything was okay for her and her baby.

Unfortunately, her newborn developed jaundice three days later, a common condition in newborns. Nyange says that, as she concentrated on nursing her newborn, she discovered that a mother at the ward struggled to breastfeed her triplets for seven days.

Nyange said that when she looked at the mother of the triplets, it was evident that she was stressed with something serious, only to find out that she had to look for breast milk while paying the hospital bills.

Nansimbi with her triplets

“I had been told that Nsambya Hospital has a milk bank, but at that time, the bank was empty for days, according to the doctors that worked that day,” Nyange says.

She says she wanted to help donate her breast milk to the children, but she did not want the mother to know that she was the donor.

"I asked my doctor if I could donate milk to the triplets, and she said I could," she says after being cleared to pump breast milk to save the babies' lives after several health checks.

Nyange says she made sure milk could be delivered to the mother but did not want to be known as the person who was donating.

“All I wanted was to be private and save the babies; When we finished our treatment, I requested her to continue getting milk,” she says.

Nyange says she is grateful that she was allowed to save the lives of three people.

"This makes me happy because some bad apples at the ward made the mother's life even more difficult by asking her to pay for breast milk. We need a spirit of humanity because there is no way you could sell a free product," she says.

Shamira Katerega Nansimbi, the mother of the triplets, says Nyange was a Godsend to save the lives of her babies after spending almost all her pennies on buying breast milk.

Nyange with the Mother of the triplets, Nansimbi Katerega

Dr Victoria Nakibuuka, a neonatologist and paediatrician at Nsambya Hospital, says the milk for neonates should come from their mothers or if not available, donor human milk can serve the purpose.

She says breastmilk is the cornerstone of their survival and brain development.

Last year in November, Uganda got its first human milk bank which now serves preemies at the hospital and other parts of the country.

Nakibuuka says today, the milk bank at St. Francis Hospital in Nsambya has 74 donors and still needs more to register as the number of preterm babies keeps increasing daily.

According to the Ministry of Health report, about 226,000 babies are born preterm out of the 1.4 million births registered annually.

Every November 17th, Uganda joins the rest of the world to raise awareness of premature birth and the sometimes-devastating impacts on families.