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Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Teeny tiny miracles at the Baby Unit!

Asiimwe’s baby was in haste to arrive, popping out before her mother had a chance to reach the labour suite, at just 27 weeks gestation (one week below the official Ugandan “survivable gestation”). This did not bode well!


Nkozi Hospital gave the baby oxygen, but realised they were ill-equipped to provide for all her needs, so this cute little girl was referred to Kitovu Hospital. On admission to our baby unit, she weighed in at just 760 grams!


We provided warmth to her (via an Embrace warmer), antibiotics, aminophylline (to help prevent her from stopping breathing) and intravenous fluids – and closely monitored her blood glucose levels. On the second day of the baby’s life, we introduced small amounts of breast milk, and she grew slowly with the addition of breast milk fortifiers.


Some 38 days later, baby Fortunate weighed a stonking 1.26kg, and was discharged home with her very happy mum! Here she is on her day of discharge with Cathy (below). And on review a week later, she has grown even more! We as River of Life want to thank the nurses, headed up by Cathy, who work tirelessly to help more mums go home with healthy babies. And another big thank goes to those people who support the Baby Unit (and even specific babies!) in prayer, finance and tangible things such as equipment for the Unit.


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