Support our newborn care training team

Sunday 17th November was World Prematurity Day. The theme this year was “Providing the right care, at the right time, in the right place.” This is exactly what Born on the Edge does with its amazing team of clinical trainers. 

The day was an opportunity to celebrate the lives of the tiny babies born too small and too soon in eastern Uganda. Over a hundred families turned out to celebrate with their children, some of whom are now four years old. It was an awesome sight watching four quadruplets standing proudly with their parents in matching orange t-shirts. Each one of them weighed less than 1kg when they were born. 

We strongly believe, that like the babies themselves, you must learn to walk before you can run. We built our strong foundation of basic neonatal skills, kangaroo care, spoon feeding and tube feeding before introducing our High Dependency Unit (HDU). Just 5 years ago, both mothers and health workers in eastern Uganda had never heard of Kangaroo Care and now it is our main method of temperature regulation, even in our tiniest preterms. Oh, and it is not just for mamas, fathers can also commonly be seen keeping their tiny babies warm. 

Kangaroo not only keeps the little ones warm but it also helps prevent infections, improve breastmilk supply and encourages bonding with the baby. It is also free, doesn’t rely on a power supply and doesn’t break or need engineering support. We love kangaroo care!

Our HDU now provides extra support to the sickest and therefore usually smallest babies. Each of the five HDU cots has a breathing machine, called bubble CPAP to help those babies with immature or damaged lungs breathe and survive. These babies also get 24/7 monitoring of their oxygen levels to monitor their breathing, which helps us identify babies who aren’t breathing well and need their machines adjusting.

Oh and the best thing, we can do all that whilst in kangaroo care! 

What an amazing world prematurity day we had. We used it as an opportunity to educate and demonstrate the importance of kangaroo, expressed breast milk and nasogastric tube feeding. Three key methods that we use to “provide the right care, at the right time and in the right place”.

Enjoy our photos of some preemies over the years enjoying Kangaroo Care, Bubble CPAP and monitoring all at the SAME TIME. 

For those who are interested, the introduction of CPAP in our neonatal unit actually reduced our preterm deaths by 44%!

This christmas we are looking for five of you to become regular monthly donors. GlobalGiving makes it simple to set up a regular donation and without your support we will not be able to continue the amazing work our team does in Uganda next year. 

Here in our neonatal unit in Mbale Regional Referral Hospital in eastern Uganda, we have had our busiest month ever with 243 little small or sick friends admitted to our ward. And yet miraculously, despite being over worked, cramped and very hot, we are still smiling and our mortality rate has remained low at only 13%. A far cry from the 52% mortality of five years ago.

One of our biggest successes has been the regular running of our well-established newborn care training courses. We run an annual full 14-module course in our hospital, biennial courses in our 4 district hospitals and biennial courses in our 4 health centre IVs. Without the knowledge and training in basic neonatology our nurses, midwives and clinicians would not have the skills available to them to save these small and sick babies.

For every course, we provide each student with a teaching manual, transport and refreshments. There is a key trainer for each course, supported by a larger team during the practical modules. At the end, we then identify 2 local champions for a 1-week residential attachment to the neonatal unit to perfect their skills. Our trainers, Linda, Derrick and Kathy work tirelessly to share thier knowledge and skills with those around them to help save newborn lives across the region. 

Each course costs us around $1200 to run, but it is money well spent and little lives are saved everyday because of it. We are looking to raise money for 3 upcoming courses in Mbale, Kapchorwa and Tororo. Please get in touch if you are interested in contributing to these training courses.