Regional hospital highlights risks of premature births

Port Shepstone Regional Hospital Neonatal ICU staff recently embarked on a campaign to raise awareness on premature births.
The campaign, Prematurity Day, is usually observed in November.

The hospital’s, Dr Azi Ngongoma explained that full term pregnancy lasts about 40 weeks, however a premature birth occurs before the 37th week of pregnancy, and is the leading cause of deaths among children under the age of five.

She said the earlier a baby is born, the higher the risk of complications, and birth weight plays an important role too.
On the awareness day, Dr Ngongoma appreciated mothers who gave birth to premature babies, for persevering, praying, loving their babies and for following all the advice given by the clinical staff, to reduce the risk of their mortality.

Deputy nursing manager, Mandisa Maqutu visited the Neonatal Unit to share her sentiments with the mothers and to educate them on various methods that are crucial in the care of pre-term babies and low birth weight infants. She appreciated mothers for prioritising their babies and further acknowledged staff’s diligence in caring for the premature babies.

One of the methods highlighted as having extraordinary benefits on the physical and mental health state for baby and the mother is prolonged skin-to-skin contact. This was highlighted as a method with extraordinary benefits, which include improved temperature regulation, infection prevention, breastmilk let-down, as well as facilitation of physiological, behavioural, psychosocial, and neuro-developmental factors.

Maqutu said there are a number of things that can be done to help women reduce risk of pre-term births which include eliminating smoking of cigarettes or using illicit drugs, treatment for chronic conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure, and avoiding stressful events.

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