Efforts to save preterm babies in Gilgil hospital bearing fruit
Ms Maureen Wanjiru, a resident of Gilgil, who adopted the Kangaroo mother care after she gave birth to a baby weighing 750 grammes.
What you need to know:
- Gilgil Sub-county Medical Superintendent David Kuria says the facility adopted Kangaroo Mother Care as it is cost-effective
- . He says the hospital has only two incubators and thus there was a need to adopt the programme to ensure babies born preterm are helped to thrive.
When Maureen Wanjiru, 24, learned that she was pregnant with her second child, she was delighted to add another member to the family.
In September last year, she was rushed to Gilgil Sub-county Hospital, where she gave birth to a girl weighing 750 grammes. This got her worried and her only consolation was the doctor’s reassurance that she would get better, but for it to happen, Maureen had to share her warmth with the infant. Maureen adopted Kangaroo Mother Care , a technique adapted from the kangaroo animal’s style of caring for young ones, carrying them in its pouch under the belly while nourishing them with milk and warmth.
The technique helps stabilise the body temperature of low birth weight (below 2.5 kilogrammes) and preterm babies, shielding them from the cold and leading to faster improvement and development of vital body organs such as the heart and lungs.
"After starting Kangaroo care, I noticed an improvement as the baby could add 60 grammes daily. After two weeks, she had attained 1.950 kilogrammes," she says.
"I didn’t know that she would survive. She was so tiny. It can be tiring to hold a baby and remain skin-to-skin for more than eight hours, but I am glad I did it,” notes Maureen.
At first she wanted the doctors to put the baby in an incubator. “However, the doctors convinced me to carry the infant with skin-to-skin contact because they were constantly available to assist and take care of me and my baby."
Now at two months, Maureen says her baby weighs 3.5 kilogrammes.
Esther Mwaura, a midwife at the facility, says they record about 200 deliveries per month, including caesarean-sections. She notes that they encourage mothers to adopt the Kangaroo mother care method for babies born underweight despite being tedious. According to Ms Mwaura, they introduced Kangaroo mother care to boost the chances of survival for preterm babies, adding that mothers are encouraged to continue with the technique at home after being discharged from the hospital.
She notes that after discharge, the hospital follows up on the progress of the babies and mothers who have gone through the programme, and they are advised to return with their babies for regular checkups. "We do not have a specific room; we have just created some space at a corner because the mothers need a lot of privacy. Our facility is so small.
“We have seen a significant increase in the number of preterm infants developing under the care of their mothers. We have some success stories, and the babies are doing quite well at home," says Ms Mwaura.
She urges the county government to complete the construction of a maternity wing in the hospital so they can provide the Kangaroo services at ease. "Once complete, the facility will accommodate more mothers for the Kangaroo care. We discharge so many mothers because the space is limited," she notes
Gilgil Sub-county Medical Superintendent David Kuria says the facility adopted Kangaroo Mother Care as it is cost-effective. He says the hospital has only two incubators and thus there was a need to adopt the programme to ensure babies born preterm are helped to thrive. "We take pride in the remarkable improvement in our care for preterm babies since the introduction of Kangaroo Mother Care," he says.
