Mbale health officials raise the red flag over premature birth
By Yahudu Kitunzi
Local leaders and health officials in Bugisu Sub-region have raised concern over the growing number of premature births.
This is after a new report indicated that about 40 percent of 300 babies born at Mbale Regional Referral hospital every month are premature.
A premature birth, also known as preterm birth, is one where a baby is born before the 37th week of a pregnancy. The normal gestation period is 40 weeks.
Dr. Julian Abeso, the Head of Pediatrics at Mbale Referral Hospital, said the hospital handles between 300 to 400 but 40 percent premature deliveries on the monthly basis.
“These children also want to grow up and be responsible people so the best we can do is to ensure that they get good health services and other basic services for them to grow up but the numbers are overwhelming,” said Dr Abeso.
She added that the hospital also handles treatment of about 1000-1300 children on a monthly basis both at inpatient and outpatient wings unlike before when the number was lower.
“The wards are too crowded. We need to make it less crowded,” she said, adding that the number of patients is also overwhelming the wards yet the staffing number is less, especially for the nurses and midwives.
Dr Abeso, who is also the Consultant Paediatricians at hospital, said the children wards also don’t have essential medical equipment such as monitoring equipment.
“We requesting for monitoring equipment to help us monitor the condition of newly born babies,” she said.
Dr Abeso made the remarks during a function at the hospital where Stanbic Uganda Holdings Limited (SUHL) donated medical equipment to Mbale regional referral hospital and Maluku Health Centre III respectively in Mbale City at the weekend.
The equipment included six baby cribs, a pulse oximeter, a100 Mama Kits, two patient beds, and a delivery set, which are all essentials for safe delivery during the course of labour.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) an estimated 13.4 million babies were born preterm in 2020 (before 37 completed weeks of gestation).
WHO indicates that Preterm birth complications are the leading cause of death among children under 5 years of age, responsible for approximately 900 000 deaths in 2019.
Karim Masaba, the Mbale Industrial Division Member of Parliament, said the premature children are alarming.
“Some years ago, we were losing 50 percent of new born babies but we are now losing 10 percent out of 100. If we can save 90 babies, this is good,” Mr Masaba said.
Mbale Referral Hospital serves a general population of over 5 million people in 17 districts that make up the region. Some of these districts include Mbale, Budaka, Bududa, Bukedea, Bukwo, Bulambuli, Butaleja, Kapchorwa, Kumi, Manafwa, Sironko among others.
