Centre for premature babies opened
Jan 06, 2008
UGANDA’s fertility rate has been put at 6.7. An urban woman gives birth to at least four to five children on average and the rural woman gives birth to seven. <br>The high birth rate, exposes women and children to high infant and maternal death.<br>
By Halima Shaban
UGANDA’s fertility rate has been put at 6.7. An urban woman gives birth to at least four to five children on average and the rural woman gives birth to seven.
The high birth rate, exposes women and children to high infant and maternal death.
With the infant mortality rate at 78 per 1,000 live births, and the maternal mortality rate at 435 per 100,000 live births, Dr. Margaret Bukenya says: “That is about 3,500 to 6,500 women and girls dying each year due to pregnancy-related complications.
Another 130,000 and 405,000 women and girls will suffer from disabilities caused by complications during pregnancy and childbirth each year.â€
Bukenya, wife to the vice-president, Gilbert Bukenya, said this while launching the Kampala Mother-Baby Medical Centre recently in Kyengera on Masaka road, where she represented her husband.
She says most of the deaths can be prevented with cost effective health services.
Margaret Nakakeeto, a neonatologist and the director of the centre, says it was started to offer services to the most vulnerable group of people, the women, babies and children especially the newborns.
She says investing in new borns is economical in the long run. For instance, a baby who gets birth asphyxia (no oxygen to the brain) ends up with brain damage leading to cerebral palsy (damage to the nervous system). Such children, when they survive, consume more resources
Nakakeeto says the most common cause of premature labour, is premature rupture of the membranes. The cause is often unknown, but possible factors include vaginal infection, excessive amniotic fluid, smoking or poor nutrition during pregnancy, or carrying twins or multiples.
Some babies need special care in hospital, sometimes on the ordinary postnatal ward and sometimes in a Neonatal Unit also known as a Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) or Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NNICU).
She says the difference between NNICU and SCBU lies in the level of care needed by each baby. Care given in SCBU is less intensive than that given in a NNICU.
Bukenya says opening up the cantre is a step in fighting the high maternal mortality rates and reducing malnutrition and its effects among the children.
Nakakeeto says the nutritional status of the children remains unsatisfactory in spite of the efforts to remedy nutritional deficiencies. Malnutrition is a serious health and welfare problem affecting particularly the children.
Over 35% of children under five are stunted. Stunting in Uganda begins at infancy and rises steeply, peaking at about two years when 50% of toddlers are stunted.
Underweight, which stands at 20%, also remains a health hazard. Wasting is a big health problem among our children possibly caused by inadequate infant feeding practices and infections especially diarrhea and respiratory diseases which are common during the first year of the child.
The centre will offer a wide range of health services including delivery, emergency obstetric care and surgery, adolescent health care, extra care for low birth weight babies, laboratory, ultra sound, X-ray consultancy and research.
UGANDA’s fertility rate has been put at 6.7. An urban woman gives birth to at least four to five children on average and the rural woman gives birth to seven.
The high birth rate, exposes women and children to high infant and maternal death.
With the infant mortality rate at 78 per 1,000 live births, and the maternal mortality rate at 435 per 100,000 live births, Dr. Margaret Bukenya says: “That is about 3,500 to 6,500 women and girls dying each year due to pregnancy-related complications.
Another 130,000 and 405,000 women and girls will suffer from disabilities caused by complications during pregnancy and childbirth each year.â€
Bukenya, wife to the vice-president, Gilbert Bukenya, said this while launching the Kampala Mother-Baby Medical Centre recently in Kyengera on Masaka road, where she represented her husband.
She says most of the deaths can be prevented with cost effective health services.
Margaret Nakakeeto, a neonatologist and the director of the centre, says it was started to offer services to the most vulnerable group of people, the women, babies and children especially the newborns.
She says investing in new borns is economical in the long run. For instance, a baby who gets birth asphyxia (no oxygen to the brain) ends up with brain damage leading to cerebral palsy (damage to the nervous system). Such children, when they survive, consume more resources
Nakakeeto says the most common cause of premature labour, is premature rupture of the membranes. The cause is often unknown, but possible factors include vaginal infection, excessive amniotic fluid, smoking or poor nutrition during pregnancy, or carrying twins or multiples.
Some babies need special care in hospital, sometimes on the ordinary postnatal ward and sometimes in a Neonatal Unit also known as a Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) or Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NNICU).
She says the difference between NNICU and SCBU lies in the level of care needed by each baby. Care given in SCBU is less intensive than that given in a NNICU.
Bukenya says opening up the cantre is a step in fighting the high maternal mortality rates and reducing malnutrition and its effects among the children.
Nakakeeto says the nutritional status of the children remains unsatisfactory in spite of the efforts to remedy nutritional deficiencies. Malnutrition is a serious health and welfare problem affecting particularly the children.
Over 35% of children under five are stunted. Stunting in Uganda begins at infancy and rises steeply, peaking at about two years when 50% of toddlers are stunted.
Underweight, which stands at 20%, also remains a health hazard. Wasting is a big health problem among our children possibly caused by inadequate infant feeding practices and infections especially diarrhea and respiratory diseases which are common during the first year of the child.
The centre will offer a wide range of health services including delivery, emergency obstetric care and surgery, adolescent health care, extra care for low birth weight babies, laboratory, ultra sound, X-ray consultancy and research.